A MAN told Gardaí he slashed the throat of a fellow resident at an addiction treatment centre because “thoughts and images” in his head that his family would be murdered forced him to do it, a court heard.
Sean Beumer (29) pleaded not guilty “by reason of insanity” on the opening day of his trial this week to charges of assaulting the victim causing him harm, and to producing an improvised blade during the attack.
Mr Beumer’s trial at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court heard the victim told Gardaí he was attacked from behind by Mr Beumer and had his neck “slashed”.
Mr Beumer, with an address at Edenmore Crescent, Raheny, Dublin 5, told Gardaí thoughts in his head “brainwashed” him into believing that he and his family would be murdered, and that if he hurt another person he would save them from harm.
At the time, Mr Beumer was residing at Cuan Mhuire addiction treatment centre, Bruree, County Limerick, where he and the victim were participating in an alcohol detox programme.
The trial, before Judge Colin Daly and a jury of seven men and five women, heard that Beumer’s previously prescribed medications were “discontinued” in line with normal detox protocols at the centre.
He had been admitted to the alcohol detox programme on November 29, 2019, and the attack on the victim occurred 15 days later on December 13.
Sergeant Aiden Larkin agreed with Mr Beumer’s barrister, senior counsel Lorcan Connolly, that Mr Beumer told Gardaí that the urge to harm someone in order to relieve his bad thoughts was “building” throughout the days he was off his medication “and he cracked”.
The attack occurred at the smoking area of the treatment centre at around 1.30am on December 13, 2019.
After his arrest Mr Beumer told Gardaí he “went into the smoking room and put him into a sleeper hold and tried to cut his face”.
“It was all building up after 10 days, all these thoughts, I just exploded.”
He told Gardaí he was “relived” when he carried out the attack, although his intention was to cut the man’s face but he “couldn’t see in the dark”.
Beumer told Gardaí that he put his bloodied hoody top in a bin after the attack.
Sergeant Larkin told the court that he found Mr Beumer in his room kneeling and praying by his bed.
He agreed with Mr Connolly that the accused expressed remorse and was cooperative with the Garda investigation.
The court heard Mr Beumer told Gardai the attack was “not personal”.
“I was brainwashed into thinking it was the right thing to do.
“I was ill, sick, depressed, I was asking to leave and they said no’ I didn’t know what else to do,” Mr Beamer told Gardaí.
When asked if he had wanted to kill the victim, Mr Beumer told Gardaí: “No, just hurt him”.
“I’m admitting to it because I don’t want it hanging over me,” he said. “I’m so sorry for what I’ve done, I was pressurised into doing it.”
The court heard that the victim and Mr Beumer became friends while at the centre and they had been playing checkers in Mr Beumer’s room moments before the attack.
Footage played in court showed Beumer following the victim out of the room towards the smoking area.
Footage showed the victim later with blood around his neck approaching a nurse at the centre.
Sergeant Larkin said one of the centre’s staff members had “innocently” cleaned up some of the blood at the scene as she was “not forensically aware”.
The staff member told Gardaí she handed the weapon used in the attack to Gardaí after it was found.
The victim told Gardaí a man he believed to be Mr Beumer had “slashed open my neck”.
He said he had “no idea why the attack happened”, that he “got choked out from behind. When I woke I saw blood dripping everywhere. I remember being choked and being told ‘go to sleep’.”
Blood samples taken from the hoody worn by Mr Beumer were forensically examined and found to be a match for the victim’s DNA.
The trial continues on Wednesday.
