A MAN who slashed another man’s throat with an improvised blade at an addiction treatment centre in Limerick was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Sean Beumer (29), of Edenmore Crescent, Raheny, Dublin 5, admitted slashing the victim’s throat with a makeshift knife he made by fixing a razor blade to a plastic handle.
Beumer, represented by barrister Lorcan Connolly, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to assault causing harm and producing a bladed weapon during the assault.
The two men were participating in a residential alcohol detox programme at Cuan Mhuire addiction treatment centre, Bruree, County Limerick, when the attack occurred in the centre’s smoking area during the early hours of December 13, 2019.
A jury of seven men and five women delivered a unanimous verdict that Beumer was not guilty by reason of insanity at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court.
Consultant psychiatrist Dr Ivan Murray earlier told the jury that Beumer was in the throws of a “psychotic” episode during the attack as a result of not receiving anti-psychotic medication for an established paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis.
Aaron Babbington (30s), of Churchfield, County Cork, sustained slash wounds to his throat and hand in the attack, and received stitches at University Hospital Limerick.
It was not heard in court that Babbington himself is presently serving an eight-year prison sentence following his conviction in April for attempted murder, after he admitted slashing the throat of another man – who later died in hospital – with a broken vodka bottle in Cork in 2023.
Beumer’s trial heard he attended Cuan Mhuire on November 29, 2019, however neither a GP who assessed him for his suitability to attend Cuan Mhuire detox nor the addiction centre itself had been aware of Beumer’s paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis.
In the days leading up to the attack, Beumer had requested his anti-psychotic medication but did not receive it, in line with the centre’s policy at the time that all detox participants’ non-medical mediations be “discontinued” during treatment.
After his arrest, Buemer told Gardaí that psychotic thoughts and voices had been “building” in his mind leading up to the assault on Babbington, and that he eventually “exploded”.
He told Gardaí he had been experiencing hallucinations he claimed “brainwashed” him into believing he and his family would be murdered if he didn’t do what he did.
The court heard Mr Beumer told Gardaí 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.
The court heard the victim and Mr Beumer became friends while at the centre and they had been playing checkers in Beumer’s room moments before the attack.
Dr Ivan Murray, who conducted an independent mental health assessment in respect of Mr Beumer, provided uncontested evidence that, in his professional opinion, there had been a “definite link” between Beumer not receiving his anti-psychotic medication and his assaulting Mr Babbington.
Dr Murrray said that Mr Beumer met criteria to support his plea that he was not guilty by reason of insanity. He said Beumer had been “unable to refrain from his actions” and his psychotic thoughts “overwhelmed his decision making”.
The psychiatrist agreed with prosecuting barrister Lily Buckley that Mr Beumer’s paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis should have been flagged with Cuan Mhuire in advance of him attending there.
Dr Murray said, in his opinion, Beumer requires a “multi-disciplinary” medical approach to treating his schizophrenia, including an MRI scan on his brain in order to discern the possibility, albeit a “rare” one, that Beumer may be suffering from a lesion on his brain that could cause similar mental health difficulties.
Judge Colin Daly ordered that a medical report in respect of Mr Beumer’s mental health be furnished to the court following further assessment at the Central Mental Hospital within the next 14 days.
