A CONSULTANT psychiatrist has said a former policeman was "in the throes of an acute mental episode" when he rampaged through parts of west Dublin in a private coach and caused the death of a woman.
Dr Patricia Casey of the Mater hospital, who was giving evidence for the defence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, said the accused was "too agitated, perplexed and terror-stricken to even consider right from wrong," when he drove into oncoming traffic at Bluebell Luas stop on the Naas Road on May 7th 2006.
Peter Clarke (38), Kiltalown Court, Tallaght, is on trial on charges arising out of what the prosecution has described as "an odyssey of destruction" resulting in the death of Máire Buckley (62).
Dr Casey said Mr Clarke thought gardaí chasing him were trying to assassinate him because he knew too much about British security.
She said that in psychiatric assessments in August 2006 and February 2007, Mr Clarke expressed remorse for causing the death of Ms Buckley but, despite being on "potent" medication for his paranoid schizophrenia, he still had false delusions about being harassed by British intelligence to infiltrate the IRA.
Dr Casey said she believed the former City of London Police constable did not know the nature or quality of his actions.
She said he had been taking medication for his condition "erratically" in the months before his rampage and told her he felt very upset at the time.
Dr Casey said Mr Clarke told her he remembered seeing flashing lights as he drove the Dualways Bus Company coach and thought gardaí were shooting at him. He described how he wanted to go home to Tallaght and rest, so he turned the bus around in the direction of the Rathcoole depot.
He told her he tried to dial "911" in his struggle with arresting gardaí after his bus crashed into an embankment in the bus depot yard.
Dr Casey was the final witness in the case which starts its closing stages on Monday before Judge Desmond Hogan and a jury.