A man accused of the killing of his 20-month-old baby son has been jailed for life after a jury found him guilty of murder by a majority verdict.
A refugee originally from Somalia, Yusif Ali Abdi (30), The Elms, College Road, Clane, Co Kildare, pleaded not guilty to murdering his son, Nathan Baraka Andrew Ali, on April 17th, 2001, in an apartment at that address.
The jury verdict came after five hours of deliberations over two days in the Central Criminal Court trial. Mr Justice Carney immediately sentenced Ali Abdi to the mandatory term of life imprisonment.
As the sentence was passed, Ali Abdi turned to the jury and repeatedly called out: "This is racism, this is racism." He also remarked that he had been judged by "white people". His wife, Ms Amanda Bailey (29), from Dundrum, Dublin, went to support him. Turning to the jury she said: "I hope you're happy with yourselves."
In a statement afterwards, she said: "I do not believe Yusif to be of sound mind when he took the life of our son. I will support him in his appeal as I have supported him throughout his trial."
A post-mortem showed that baby Nathan died from massive damage to the brain, with skull fractures resulting from multiple impacts with a hard surface.
On the night of the killing, Ali Abdi's wife and child were paying him a visit. He awoke at 4 a.m., went to his son's bed and removed him from it, took him to another room, locked the door and swung him by the feet against a kitchen wall, causing fatal injuries to his head. There was no prior history of physical abuse of the child and Ali Abdi was said by witnesses to be "a gentle" and "quietly spoken" man.
Ms Bailey and her son were staying with her parents because of her husband's behaviour in the months prior to the incident.
The jury had to decide whether Ali Abdi was guilty of murder or if he was legally insane at the time.
He told his trial that he suffered from "flashbacks", "hallucinations" and "voices in his head" in the months before the killing, and that on the night he took his son from his bed and swung his head against a kitchen wall, a voice in his head had commanded him to "take him, take him" and "hit him, hit him".
In 1999, he was assessed in the Mater's psychiatric unit and found to have post-traumatic stress disorder, largely due to his history in Somalia, where his parents were shot dead and his family home burned out before he fled for Kenya and then Ireland.
In December 2000, he was on anti-depressants, but he was also prescribed the anti-malaria drug, Lariam, which, it was claimed, is known to cause serious psychiatric side-effects in one in 140 people.
Two consultant psychiatrists called by the defence told the trial they believed Ali Abdi was schizophrenic at the time of the killing and that his reason was impaired by a disease of the mind, meaning he could not form an intention to kill or cause serious injury - the legal requirement for a finding of murder.
However, a consultant psychiatrist at the Central Mental Hospital, Dr Damien Mohan, disputed their diagnoses and said that in his opinion, Ali Abdi was legally sane. He has been in the Central Mental Hospital for the past two years and has been prescribed anti-psychotic and anti-schizophrenic drugs.
All of the psychiatrists giving evidence agreed that the anti-malaria drug could not be ruled out as a factor in the killing.
This was Ali Abdi's second trial. Last January, the first jury disagreed after more than 10 hours of deliberation. Yesterday, the jury foreman said the verdict was by a majority of 10, with two dissenting jurors.
Mr Justice Carney refused leave to appeal, but Ali Abdi's lawyers will now directly apply to the Court of Criminal Appeal to seek leave to appeal there.