A 50-year-old man who stabbed an AIDS patient to death in his hospital bed was found guilty of murder and jailed for life today.
Patrick Gilraine (otherwise known as Kilraine) of Basin St flats, Dublin 8 was convicted by a unanimous jury verdict of the murder of Mr Kevin Dowler (52) also from Basin St, Dublin at St James's Hospital, Dublin on February 7th, 2000. He had denied the charge.
Gilraine stood impassively and nodded his head as Mr Justice Kevin O'Higgins imposed the mandatory life sentence on him. The jury had spent more than six hours deliberating the verdict.
Gilraine attacked Mr Dowler because he believed he was a paedophile who posed a threat to young boys. When arrested on the grounds of the hospital Gilraine said he did it "to save other kids" and that 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 and told him to stay away from Basin St.
"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 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 suffering from 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 about this to hospital social workers in the hours before the murder and they advised him to make contact with the relevant authorities.
However, Gilraine returned a few hours later and confronted the patient in his hospital bed, stabbing him seven times with a steak knife.