Mayo jury returns insanity verdict in telecoms damage case
An aero-nautical engineer who damaged telecommunications masts at ten sites across Mayo and Galway was experiencing an acute psychotic episode caused by schizophrenia, a court has heard.
Adrian Behan (44) has been found not guilty by reason of insanity of a spate of vandalism offences including snipping GPS cables, damaging antennae, disabling metre boxes and stealing industrial fuses and lengths of fibre optic cable.
A jury at Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court returned the special verdict unanimously after less than 30 minutes’ deliberation today/yesterday (THURSDAY), on the second day of the trial.
Behan, with an address at Newport Road, Castlebar, Co Mayo, faced 23 criminal damage charges and 10 counts of theft for offences committed between September 8 and October 31, 2023.
Addressing the court, Judge Eoin Garavan said it was an unusual case where both himself, the prosecution and the defence teams all agreed that the verdict issued was the only possible outcome.
Judge Garavan described Behan as a ‘decent, high-functioning and gentle individual’ who had ‘never done anything wrong in his life’ before these offences.
‘This man is yet another victim of Covid,’ said the judge, noting that Behan had become unwell through no fault of his own when his medication regime was disrupted by lockdown and he was overlooked by health services.
Giving evidence during the trial, Detective Garda Keith Coleman told Patrick Reynolds BL, prosecuting, that multiple telecoms providers had lost signal and experienced transmission failures as a result of the offences.
The equipment that was either damaged or stolen belonged to service providers including RTÉ, ESB, Mayo County Council, Eir, Vodafone and Three Ireland, the court heard.
Gda Coleman said Behan was arrested carrying his bag of tools as he was about to leave a telecoms site at Lavybeg, Charlestown on September 13th, 2023.
He had cut through GPS cables belonging to phone company Eir and told gardaí he was ‘under operational order’ to take out the telecommunications system.
Behan was wearing a non-standard military-style of camouflage jacket at the time, the court heard.
The court heard Behan had been stable on medication since his schizophrenia diagnosis in 2017, but that his treatment was disrupted during the Covid lockdown and his symptoms had gradually worsened.
Consultant psychiatrist Dr Kieran Hennigan told the jury that Behan was suffering from auditory and somatic hallucinations symptomatic of a psychotic episode when he carried out the offences.
Over the course of eight garda interviews following two separate arrests, Behan said he believed that radiation given off by the phone masts and substations was damaging people’s health, burning his own skin and killing his mother.
He said he was ‘under general orders for the defence of the State’ to ‘advance from station to station’ and ‘take the towers out’.
Behan claimed the radio masts were being controlled by a raft of organisations including the military, the HSE, the Vatican, the Papal Guard, the Swiss Guard, the GAA, the Ranger wing of the army and the IRA.
‘Those radios could be a loaded gun in the hands of the wrong people,’ he told gardaí, adding that it was his ‘mission’ to ‘patrol’ these sites.
Detective Garda Keith Coleman showed the jury a sample of the industrial fuses stolen by Behan at multiple telecommunications sites, nine of which were in Co Mayo and one in Co Galway.
The court heard that a mast at Brookhill, Claremorris, Co Mayo was damaged on several occasions when cables and wiring were cut and two ESB fuses were removed.
Elsewhere, Behan admitted damaging an Eir metre prop box in Carrowmore, Manulla and cutting fibreoptic cables at a mast in Ballyclogher, Balla.
He also stole electrical fuses belonging to ESB at a telecoms site in Cloonkeen, Castlebar and damaged equipment there.
At Croaghmoyle Booster Station just outside Castlebar, Behan damaged cables belonging toa number of service providers including Eir, Three Ireland, Vodafone and RTÉ.
A GPS antenna at Harrington’s Quarry, Kilkenny was damaged, as was a cut-off fuse on the Eir exchange on a mast at Churchfield, near Knock.
Vodafone cables at Knockmoyleen, Ballyheane were cut during another incident.
In Leenaun, Clifden, Co Galway, fibre optic cables and MCB fuses were damaged while two fuses were stolen between September 9 and 10, 2023.
Carl Hanahoe SC, defending, said it was a ‘particularly tragic and sad case’ in that Behan had been doing everything right when he was ‘laid low by a devastating illness’.
He said his client had been compliant with his medication, working as an aero-nautical engineer and looking after his ailing mother when an interruption in medical services around Covid caused him to become very unwell.
Mr Hanahoe asked the jury to imagine suffering auditory and somatic hallucinations, when ‘you can’t turn down the volume; you can’t put on after-sun to cool the burning; you can’t rationalise the delusion.’
Counsel said it took Behan only three weeks to get back on track when he resumed his medication and the court heard he has been stable and doing well since his release from hospital in April 2024.
Judge Garavan wished Behan the very best of luck with his health and said everyone had great sympathy for him.
‘It’s no fault of his own that he is before the court,’ said the judge.
Judge Garavan remarked that there had been a palpable and notable increase in court work arising from the direct and indirect effects of the Covid lockdown.
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