HSE<\/a> Mental Health Services who knew that Austin Mangan (53) had not been taking his psychiatric medicine for three months before he killed her. They said he also sought help from his psychiatric team the day before her death but was \u201csent away with an appointment for the following week\u201d.<\/p>\nIn a statement released following a court hearing on Friday, the family said: \u201cMedication can be life-saving as part of a care plan, but it cannot be the only answer. If a care plan has only one strand, what happens when that strand breaks?\u201d<\/p>\n
Maud Coffey suffered multiple injuries during a \u201cfrenzied attack\u201d at Mr Mangan\u2019s hands in January 2023. A jury earlier this week found him not guilty of her murder by reason of insanity.<\/p>\n
The family said they agree with the jury\u2019s verdict, adding: \u201cWe do not believe Austin is responsible for Maud\u2019s death. We wish him well in his recovery and hope he can find peace.\u201d They also said that their \u201chearts go out\u201d to the Mangan family <\/p>\n
They believe that if Austin had been properly listened to, their sister would still be with them and \u201cwould not have died in such a horrendous way\u201d. They said they want to work with the HSE to prevent similar tragedies in the future.<\/p>\n
The trial heard that Mr Mangan told a consultant psychiatrist that he hadn\u2019t been feeling well the day before the killing. He went to Millmount Health Clinic in Drumcondra to get an injection, but they wouldn\u2019t give it to him, the court was told. The defendant said Millmount told him to go to another clinic but instead he and Ms Coffey went to her apartment, as he was tired.<\/p>\n
Under cross-examination, it was put to Dr Ronan Mullaney that Mr Mangan had gone to get depot medication (an injection that releases medication slowly over time) but there wasn\u2019t someone to dispense it and he was told to come back on January 18th.<\/p>\n
Dr Mullaney said depots are highly organised and, to receive medication, there has to be an appointment with a community psychiatric nurse, which was \u201cnot available on the day, which was not surprising\u201d. He agreed it may have made no difference, as the medication can take six weeks to take effect.<\/p>\n
At Friday\u2019s hearing, during which Mr Mangan was committed to the Central Mental Hospital for continuing treatment, Ms Coffey\u2019s sisters and brother delivered statements detailing the impact of her death.<\/p>\n
Breffn\u00ed Coffey said Maud was \u201cso happy when she met Austin\u201d.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cI remember her telling me about their first date, lying together on the grass in the park, talking together and watching the clouds go by. I was so happy she had found romance and joy in her life. It made me happy to know she had met someone who loved her for being her and cherished her inner strength.\u201d<\/p>\n
Breffn\u00ed Coffey said she was aware that before her death, Maud had her own struggles with mental health but she believed she was getting better.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cI had to explain to my children that their beloved aunt had died at the hands of the man who loved her, because he was unwell.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iseult Coffey said she is Maud\u2019s eldest sister. \u201cWhen Maud began a relationship with Austin, I was so happy for her. She had met someone who loved and supported her.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Mr Mangan met the rest of the family, he was \u201calways kind and friendly and made a big effort\u201d, she said, adding: \u201cEveryone liked him; our nickname for him was the Big Friendly Giant.\u201d<\/p>\n
The children in the family knew Mr Mangan as a \u201ckind and gentle person,\u201d she said. \u201cHelping them understand that serious mental illness can change someone so completely – that it can make someone behave in ways that are not truly who they are – has been an extremely painful and difficult lesson for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fergus Coffey described his sister as a \u201cloving and gentle creature\u201d who found her \u201cbliss\u201d with animals and children.<\/p>\n
S\u00edofra Coffey said Maud and Austin appeared to be happy together and looked after one another. \u201cThis is why it\u2019s so difficult to come to terms with what happened. Two people\u2019s lives were destroyed and two families were left reeling and broken.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fainche Coffey said finding out that Austin had killed her sister was \u201call too shocking and upsetting for words\u201d. The details revealed at the inquest and trial \u201chaunt\u201d her, she said.<\/p>\n
Each family member commented on the added distress caused by delays to the trial process. Brendan Grehan SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the cause of the delay was the difficulty in obtaining reports from forensic consultant psychiatrists. The lack of suitably qualified psychiatrists has delayed numerous trials in recent years.<\/p>\n
Dr Patrick McLaughlin earlier told Mr Grehan that Mr Mangan continues to suffer from a schizoaffective disorder and is in need of continuing treatment at the Central Mental Hospital.<\/p>\n
Mr Justice Paul Burns said the family\u2019s statements had brought \u201cinto sharp focus the sorrow, loss and hurt and the severe impact that lie behind verdicts such as in this case\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said the trial process was clearly difficult for the family and it was \u201cmost unfortunate \u201d that it took longer than it should. Mr Justice Burns committed Mr Mangan to the Central Mental Hospital, where he will be reviewed every six months.<\/p>\n
Mr Mangan, with a previous address at Hollybank Road in Drumcondra but more recently of the Beaumont area of Dublin, had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the murder of Maud Coffey (41) at the Horizon Building in Royal Canal Park, Ashtown, Dublin 15 on January 13th, 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of a woman killed by her partner while he was suffering a relapse of a schizoaffective…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[62627,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-201317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-central-mental-hospital","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}