A jury in the trial of a Donegal man accused of murdering his parents at their family home in Churchtown, Carndonagh has retired to consider a verdict.
Julian Cuddihy admits killing James and Kathleen Cuddihy in October 2014, but the court heard he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.
In the lead up to October 22nd 2014, Julian Cuddihy was refusing to eat because he was convinced his mother was trying to poison him.
He couldn’t sleep because he was worried people were stealing his thoughts and he was convinced the IRA was trying to recruit him.
His family had become concerned, and tragically his father James Snr cancelled an appointment with local mental health services just six days before he killed him and his wife Kathleen with an axe.
Yesterday, Dr. Damian Mohan, a consultant psychiatrist, said they were concerned over the stigma associated with mental health.
On the night of the killings, he said he could hear his mother’s voice in his head asking him to take their lives so they could go to heaven.
The jury has now retired to consider whether the special verdict of NOT guilty by reason of insanity applies in the 43-year-old’s case.
