A North Co Dublin man claims slimming tablets caused him to believe he was a US army commander and made him go berserk in a journalist's home.
A leading clinical pathologist told the jury in a trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court he would never give his children or patients any medicine containing the drug which formed the base of the Vigeuer Fit slimming tablets used by the defendant.
Mr Damien Rankin broke into the home of former Evening Press and Evening Herald columnist, the late Mr Michael O'Toole, and told him he and his wife would be killed as revenge for the war in the Balkans. He pushed Mr O'Toole on to a chair in his study and assaulted his wife.
Mr Rankin ripped down curtains and broke the telephone wires. Mrs O'Toole told the jury she offered to get a jacket for Mr Rankin to keep him warm. She went to a neighbour's house and called gardai. Mr Rankin gave gardai an army serial number when asked for a name and address. He had no recollection of events until the next day.
Mr Rankin (32), of Channel Road, Rush, Co Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to assault and false imprisonment of Mr and Mrs O'Toole, and criminal damage at Strand Road, Portmarnock, on March 31st, 1999.
Mr Rankin agrees the events outlined i had occurred but claims he was in a temporary psychotic state brought on by the slimming tablets, combined with the stimulant Red Bull and the equivalent of 14 pints of beer.
Det Garda Gerry Feeney told Mr Fergal Kavanagh, prosecuting, Mr Rankin had first been violent in a nightclub in Portmarnock earlier that night. He went to a house near the nightclub but the family resisted his attempts to gain entry. He tried to break down the electronic gates of a second house before breaking into the O'Tooles.
A consultant clinical pathologist, Dr Bill Tormey, told Mr Rankin's counsel, Mr Hugh Harnett SC, the slimming tablets contained pseudo-ephedrine. He said there was a large amount of research which suggested pseudo-ephedrine and a similar substance, ephedrine, could lead to death and psychotic fits, depending on how it was administered.
Mr Ronald Boyle, a private detective hired by Mr Rankin's defence team, said he called to the house of a woman in Rush, Co Dublin, and purchased the tablets on April 3rd, 1999. He said she did not give him advice about the effect the tablets could have.
The case continues today.