A man who stabbed an AIDS patient to death in his hospital bed has been found guilty at the Central Criminal Court of murder and jailed for life.
Patrick Gilraine (50) (otherwise known as Kilraine), Basin Street Flats, Dublin, was convicted after six hours by a unanimous jury verdict of the murder of Kevin Dowler (52), also from Basin Street, Dublin, at St James's Hospital in February 2000. He had denied the charge.
Gilraine stood impassively and nodded his head as Mr Justice O'Higgins imposed the mandatory life sentence.
Gilraine attacked Mr Dowler because he believed he was a paedophile who posed a threat to young boys. When arrested in the grounds of the hospital, Gilraine said he did it "to save other kids" and he would do it again.
"I hope he's dead. He's a paedophile," he later told gardaí.
In court, he said he lost his temper when he confronted Mr Dowler. "I told him to stay away from the flats and from young boys. He started laughing at me. I took the knife out and stuck it in his chest," he said he told gardaí. "He let a roar out of him and sat up in the bed to grab me. I stuck the knife in him a few more times."
During the four-day trial the court heard that Mr Dowler was a homosexual man with AIDS who had been in hospital for a number of months suffering from a "chronic personal infection".
Gilraine, who described his victim as "a mate", visited him a number of times that day and learned he was due to be discharged.
He expressed his concerns to hospital social workers, and they advised him to make contact with the relevant authorities.
"I explained that we could not prevent his [Mr Dowler's] discharge. We were not a holding centre and couldn't keep him in hospital against his will," Ms Maeve Foreman, a senior medical social worker, told the court.
However, Gilraine returned a few hours later and confronted Mr Dowler in his hospital bed, stabbing him seven times with a steak knife.
Gilraine was especially concerned that Mr Dowler was targeting one young boy in particular. "He used to give him sweets. I just couldn't stand it any more," he later said. "I stabbed him to keep him in hospital . . . I knew he would not stop".
Sgt Joseph Crowe told the trial there was no evidence that Gilraine's allegations against Mr Dowler were true. However, statements had been taken from a local boy who said Mr Dowler had taken him to Bray once and touched him on the bottom.
The State Pathologist, Dr John Harbison, told the court that Mr Dowler died as a result of two of seven stab wounds, to the lungs and liver. Although the victim was seriously ill with a long and complicated medical and surgical history for chronic infections, he died as a result of the stabbing.
Dr Harbison concluded the cause of death was from shock, haemorrhage and the inhalation of blood, due to stab wounds in the left lung and the liver.