{"id":495367,"date":"2026-06-12T03:27:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T03:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/495367\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T03:27:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T03:27:10","slug":"orthopaedic-surgeon-accused-of-trashing-hotel-and-assaulting-guests-found-not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/495367\/","title":{"rendered":"Orthopaedic surgeon accused of trashing hotel and assaulting guests found not guilty by reason of insanity \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A consultant orthopaedic surgeon, who allegedly assaulted three people and caused more than \u20ac40,000 worth of damage at a Limerick<\/a> hotel three years ago, was on Thursday found not guilty by reason of insanity.<\/p>\n

A jury of six men and six women took 27 minutes to return unanimous verdicts on all charges following a three-day trial at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Forensic consultant psychiatrists for both the prosecution and the defence had each given evidence that the accused, Dr Emmett Cullen, who specialised in hip replacement surgeries, was in the throes of a psychotic episode while a guest at the Clayton Hotel, Steamboat Quay, Limerick, on May 4th, 2023.<\/p>\n

The defence argued that Cullen, of Silverbrook, Mill Road, Corbally, Limerick, was not aware of what he was doing, nor was he able to refrain from his manic behaviour at the time due to suffering a psychotic episode.<\/p>\n

Cullen (50) had a prior diagnosis of \u201cbipolar affective type 1\u201d, a psychiatric illness, and was subdued on the night by armed garda\u00ed discharging a taser and pepper spray, the court heard.<\/p>\n

The accused returned to work on a part-time basis nine months later, after he entered remission from the illness.<\/p>\n

Cullen had been experiencing high levels of stress at the time. Following his arrest under the Mental Health Act, he had told garda\u00ed that he had seen children with \u201cred\u201d eyes in the hotel, and that he believed he was being surrounded by more than 40 people.<\/p>\n

Cullen was before the court charged with one count of causing criminal damage, three counts of assault causing harm, and one count of using a fire extinguisher as a weapon.<\/p>\n

It was accepted that the hotel\u2019s CCTV footage showed Cullen, armed with two fire extinguishers, trashing the lobby, bar and restaurant and kitchen area, and discharging the content of the fire extinguishers around the hotel.<\/p>\n

The prosecution also alleged Cullen assaulted hotel female patrons in their 70s by smashing glass with one of the fire extinguishers, causing cuts to the women\u2019s hands; and that he struck a male guest with a fire extinguisher, causing a cut to the man\u2019s arm.<\/p>\n

Prosecuting barrister John O\u2019Sullivan, instructed by State solicitor for Limerick city Padraig Mawe, told the jury that the fact Cullen had paid the hotel \u20ac49,000 in compensation afterwards was \u201can admission\u201d of having caused the damage.<\/p>\n

While in custody following his arrest, Cullen told garda\u00ed: \u201cI don\u2019t recall hitting anybody, but I\u2019ll pay for the damages.\u201d<\/p>\n

When garda\u00ed later put it to him that guests had been injured, he replied: \u201cI don\u2019t remember it, but if I did, I do accept full responsibility for what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Testimony given by two forensic psychiatrists that were called by the prosecution and the defence was that Cullen was more than likely suffering from \u201challucinations\u201d, \u201cparanoid delusions\u201d and \u201closs of contact with reality\u201d associated with his prior diagnosis.<\/p>\n

The court heard that before the night in question, the hip surgeon had a number of times attended inpatient psychiatric services after suffering manic episodes, including a period when he stopped taking his medication after he developed a slight tremor in his hands as a side effect of taking prescribed medicine.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Sullivan told the jury it was \u201cclear\u201d from the evidence that Cullen committed the offences before the court.<\/p>\n

Cullen\u2019s barrister, Aaron Desmond, told the jury it was not disputed that the accused committed the offences, but he argued that Cullen was suffering from a mental health episode at the time, and therefore he should not be held criminally responsible for his actions on the night.<\/p>\n

Judge Colin Daly told the jury: \u201cThe evidence is your map, and you must follow the map.\u201d The judge said the jury had to treat their deliberations on each verdict \u201ccoldly and dispassionately\u201d on the evidence and not in their emotions.<\/p>\n

After unanimous verdicts were returned on all five charges, the judge thanked the jury for their time and excused them from jury service for the next three years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A consultant orthopaedic surgeon, who allegedly assaulted three people and caused more than \u20ac40,000 worth of damage at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13553,61,60,1396,43],"class_list":["post-495367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-circuit-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-limerick","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495367","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=495367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}