Man found not guilty by reason of insanity for explosion that rocked Waterford city
Fire services battling the fire on the Ballytruckle Road in March 2018.
A Waterford man has been found not guilty by reason of insanity for an explosion at his home in 2018.
Anthony Holness (51), of Belvedere Drive, Waterford, was charged with three counts of arson on Ballytruckle Road on March 4, 2018.
At Waterford Cicuit Court, Mr Holness admitted setting his house on fire and thus damaging the two adjoining properties but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
At the time, he told gardaí and medical staff that he was trying to rid the house of demons.
A jury of six men and six women delivered the special verdict under Section 5 of the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act, 2006, after approximately 90 minutes of deliberations.
Both psychiatrists for the prosecution and defence agreed that Mr Holness could not understand his actions on the night were wrong and to refrain from carrying them out.
Acting for the prosecution, Conor O’Doherty, BL, read onto the record statements by Annette O’Brien, Patrick Jacob, and Tony and Barbara Whelan of what happened on the evening of March 4, 2018.
Annette O’Brien, who lived at 98, said in her statement that she was watching TV at around 8pm when her house began to shake.
The extractor fan in her kitchen came on, and she was “stuck to her chair with fright.” She went outside and saw the neighbours on the road and house number 99 on fire.
“It was as if it was still exploding,” she said in her statement.
Ms O’Brien reported seeing Mr Holness lying face down in the snow with blood pouring from his hands.
Her house was too damaged for her to stay and she went to her sister for the night.
Patrick Jacob had lived at 100 Ballytruckle Road with his girlfriend since 2007.
In his statement, he said he had just renovated the house.
On that, evening, he was watching TV when he saw flames through the skylight, and when he went outside, the roof of the Holness house had collapsed and “flames were bellowing out of it”.
Mr Jacob told gardaí that he saw Mr Holness earlier that evening, at around 6pm, digging in his garden.
He said he thought it was odd but knew the defendant had an old dog and thought the hole might be for her.
Tony Whelan, of 96 Ballytruckle Road, was at home with his wife when he heard the explosion.
He thought the water tank had come through the ceiling, but when he went outside, he saw Mr Holness injured and the house on fire.
Mr Whelan reported asking Mr Holness what had happened, and he said he didn’t know but that he was burned.
Mr Whelan told Mr Holness to get down into the snow, and he ran to his sister Annette’s house to help her before assisting his other neighbours.
He stayed outside until the fire brigade arrived and then went to move his sister’s car. His wife Barbara, watched from their doorway.
In her statement, Mrs Whelan said she had seen Mr Holness drive away earlier in the evening and come back a short time later.
The next time she saw him was after the explosion when her husband pushed him into the snow.
“It was like a bomb went off,” she said.
The following day, Senior Crime Scene Investigator Garda Kevin Nolan went to University Hospital Waterford and collected Mr Holness’s clothes as evidence.
He then met Senior Crime Scene Investigator Aidan Slattery, now retired, at the scene to take photos.
Those photos were compiled into a booklet and distributed to the jury.
During the trial, Garda Nolan described the damage to the three homes, as well as what he found in the Holness House.
He described for the court how the door was “blown out onto the street.” A lamp and the jacket the defendant took off when he rolled in the snow were on the road outside No. 96.
The jacket was collected as evidence.
Mr O’Doherty asked him: “The roof was essentially blown off the house?” “Yes, that is correct” answered the garda.
The guard described extensive damage to the front room, and a “wall had completely collapsed into the bedroom of the adjoining property” (Jacob House).
In the Holness house, there were clothes on the bathroom floor that the guard said smelled of what he believed to be petrol.
These were seized for analysis.
Clothes dowsed in petrol were also found in the kitchen, and those too were seized.
The O’Brien house had also suffered structural damage.
Garda Nolan returned the following day, where he was told by the fire service that they had ruled out an accidental fire, the court heard.
A report from Forensic Scientist Barbara Buchanan of Forensic Science Ireland found “partly evaporated petrol vapour” on the clothes collected from the defendant’s house.
Garda Detective Michael J Cawley was tasked with collecting CCTV footage, tracing Mr Holness's movements on the night of the explosion.
He told the court that on March 6, 2018, he collected footage from the Maxol Service Station on the Cork Road and a receipt for fuel purchased by the defendant.
The guard described the footage, which was not played in court but the jury was provided with stills.
He said the defendant could be seen putting the petrol into four plastic containers, paying at the counter and loading them into his car.
Garda Detective Emmett Dunphy of Kilkenny Garda Station told the court he had been briefed about the explosion and the investigation on March 15, 2018.
The defendant had been transferred from University Hospital Waterford to Cork for further treatment but was due to be released.
On March 16, the garda detective travelled to Cork and arrested Mr Holness who responded: “I know what I did, and I want to help ye.”
When interviewed, Mr Holness declined a solicitor.
He told gardaí that the house belonged to his father Lesley Holness and he had lived there since his great-aunt died around eight years ago.
He told gardaí that on the night of the explosion, his dog had died.
He also told them that he was a Christian “led by a spiritual power” and he had set the fire to “expel demons from the house.” He told gardaí: “One should anoint people who are sick, not buildings. A lack of knowledge was my downfall.
“I do believe the house was cursed.”
The court heard that Mr Holness went on to tell gardaí that he killed his dog in the kitchen but not of his own free will.
He said that he believed a demon had possessed the dog but afterwards, he saw it as a sacrifice.
“When the blood came out of the dog, I knew it was a sacrifice,” he said in the interview with gardaí.
Mr Holness said he took the dog’s body outside into the garden and buried her, which he said took hours.
He then went out and bought the petrol.
“I knew the house was dedicated to Satan,” he told gardaí. “All of my things were cursed. It was the only way.”
Mr Holness set the fire first in the bathroom, but it blew up in his face, the court heard.
“I recall screaming,” he told gardaí.
He then went to the kitchen to “complete the ceremony”.
“I was determined to leave the house safely under God’s protection,” he told gardaí.
When asked if he had warned his neighbours, he responded: “Not for a split second did I think anyone would be harmed.”
But when Mr Holness went outside, he said: “It was like a war zone.”
“I wanted to call the Christian Brothers, but the only number I could remember was my mother’s,” he said in his interview.
He told gardaí that his neighbours knew him well enough to know he would not harm them, and he did not know their houses would be damaged.
But he told gardaí that the devil wanted him dead, but “he had proved himself” and God had spared him.
Following the interview, gardaí brought Mr Holness to the A&E at University Hospital Waterford where he was admitted.
Detective Garda Thomas Martin, who co-ordinated the investigation, told the court that the cost of the damage to Annette O’Brien’s house was €64,364.95.
The cost to Patrick Jacob was €144,686.12.
Lesley Holness declined to provide a figure or give a statement.
Two psychiatry reports were commissioned for Mr Holness, one by the prosecution and the other by the defence.
The court heard that both Dr Kezanne Tong (prosecution) and Dr Brenda Wright (defence) agreed that Mr Holness met the criteria of a special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Forensic Psychiatrist at the Central Medical Hospital Kezanne Tong told the court that she assessed the defendant on October 9, 2023.
She noted he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, PTSD and psychotic symptoms.
He had also been diagnosed with and treated for depression and anxiety.
Dr Tong outlined for the court the defendant's medical history from his first contact with his GP in 2010 to her assessment in 2023.
In that time, he suffered from spiritual delusions, “unusual religious ideas”, alcoholism and thought disorder.
Dr Tong said it was her opinion that he met the criteria for a diagnosis of schizophrenia and the special verdict.
She told the court that while it was clear Mr Holness knew he was burning the house, he did not know it was wrong, and he was unable to stop himself from doing it.
Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist and Clinical Director Dr Brenda Wright (also of the Central Medical Hospital) told the court that she interviewed Mr Holness in August 2020 and again in November 2021.
She outlined for the court his troubled family history, leaving education early and a history of mental illness.
She said Mr Holness reported experiencing depression and anxiety following an assault by gardaí in 2010.
Dr Wright said that the assault resulted in an injury to his head, and he had subsequently been diagnosed with PTSD.
She said the assault had led to a “breakthrough psychotic episode” and flashbacks.
She described symptoms, including, hearing voices that would “judge and chastise” him, suicidal ideation and both delusions and hallucinations.
Delusions, she explained to the court, are beliefs. Mr Holness, she said, has grandiose delusions and paranoid or persecutory delusions.
“He believes he was sent to evangelise Waterford and be an example for all believers,” said Dr Wright.
Hallucinations are experiences like hearing voices, and in Mr Holness’s case, those voices tell him what to do.
Dr Wright told the court that during her interviews with Mr Holness, he had told her a friend who shared Mr Holness’s beliefs had suggested he was not ill but under a “demonic assault”.
Between 2011 and the time of the offence, Mr Holness was inconsistent in his treatment, engaging only sometimes with his doctors and regularly refusing to take his medication.
Dr Wright explained that part of Mr Holness’s illness is that he does not have good “insight into his condition”, and it can be hard for him to understand that his experiences are not real.
She shared Dr Tong’s opinion that Mr Holness met the criteria for a special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.
In his closing argument, Mr O’Doherty told the jury that their role was to decide whether the defendant met the criteria for a special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.
It was not their job to decide if Mr Holness caused the explosion.
On that point, there was no conflict between the state and defence.
In this trial, Mr O’Doherty explained that the facts are not in dispute, only whether Mr Holness had the capacity to be responsible.
Mr O’Doherty told the jury that it was “in the interest of those involved and the community that the case go on” and in a way that is “open and transparent”.
“It is a level of rigour and thoroughness that this verdict be carried out not just for you but for the community as a whole. It must be understood that justice is not just done but seen to be done,” said Mr O’Doherty.
Mr O’Doherty explained that if they found the defendant not guilty by reason of insanity, he would not “get off Scot free” but rather the matter would be dealt with in a medical setting.
Acting for the defence, Coleman Cody, SC, said that what happened that night was the result of an illness that has “blighted” his client’s life for many years.
He said it was lucky that only Mr Holness was hurt and that his actions were the result of a “profoundly disturbed mind”.
He pointed out that there was no conflict in the evidence given by the doctors.
Mr Coleman told the jury that it was of “critical importance” that they understand how Mr Holness’s illness affects his perception of his own illness.
Sometimes he does not know he is ill and has experiences that have led him to believe otherwise.
Mr Coleman said that in delivering the special verdict, the jury would be helping Mr Holness because he would have “obligations in terms of his treatment” going forward.
“It will be of benefit not only to Mr Holness but society at large,” said Mr Coleman.
Judge Eugene O’Kelly told the jury, that this case was a most unusual one because the defence and prosecution are “urging the same thing.”
He explained that a defendant has a presumption of innocence but also a presumption of sanity.
In an ordinary trial, it is on the state to prove the facts, not the defendant to prove their innocence.
In a criminal trial, the state must prove the facts beyond a reasonable doubt.
But, in this case, Mr Holness must prove insanity on a balance of probabilities, a standard usually applied only to civil cases.
Under Section 5 of the act, Judge O’Kelly explained, a defendant must meet one of three criteria.
The first is that they understood the act they were committing. Second, that they understand it was wrong, and thirdly that they were unable to refrain from their actions.
It is the role of the jury to consider the evidence they have heard and decide if that criteria is met.
That evidence has been given unanimously by two medical professionals, but Judge O’Kelly said: “This is not a trial by psychiatrists. That is for you to decide.”
The jury found Mr Holness not guilty by reason of insanity on all three counts.
Judge O’Kelly referred Mr Holness to the Central Medical Hospital for not more than 14 days for assessment.
He told the jury: “I will act in accordance with the legislation, and that assessment will be put before me by the psychiatrists. You will have no fear that he will just be left there.”
Mr O’Doherty told the court that the hospital was currently at capacity and they would need to wait for a bed to become available.
Judge O’Kelly ordered Mr Holness to be remanded on bail until January 14, 2025.
