Psychiatrist tells court that Tany Doyle was not insane when she killed husband

on 08/03/2013 17:46:59

A murder trial has heard psychiatric evidence that a Dublin woman was not insane when she stabbed her husband over 60 times.

Forty year old Tanya Doyle admits killing Paul Byrne at their house in Pairc Gleann Trasna, Aylesbury in Tallaght, on September 4 2009 but denies his murder.

Dr Paul O'Connell said he originally formed the view from interviews with Tanya Doyle that she suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and was insane at the time she killed her husband.

He said he revised that opinion on the basis that she knew what she was doing, knew it was wrong and could have refrained from doing it as she had had a meal and engaged in conversation with Paul Byrne before stabbing him more than 60 times.

However Dr O'Connell believes Tanya Doyle suffers from schizoaffective disorder - that would substantially diminish her responsibility for the offence

He said she experiences delusions and believed her husband was part of a conspiracy in which men had attacked her, gassed her and put telescopic lenses into her eyes that connect to the internet.