Indefinite hospital detention for man cleared of attempted murder

Terence Brady, 27, of Colinwood Street, who has been in and out of mental care for nearly seven years, was acquitted by a Belfast Crown Court jury earlier this week of attempting to murder the delivery driver, “by reason of insanity”.

Judge David McFarland said that having read and heard evidence from two leading psychiatrists, he thought the appropriate order to make was a “hospital order” and given the clinical view of the man’s mental condition, “that order will be without time limit”.

He said that the impact of the hospital order “will wipe the slate clean” of all past orders, and that the man will remain at the Knockbracken Healthcare Park.

Earlier a psychiatrist who had been treating Brady said the order was needed to protect the public from serious harm as the man’s paranoid schizophrenia would remain a “life long condition”.