A 31-year-old New York man has been found not guilty by reason of insanity in the killing of his millionaire financier father at a luxury hotel in Ireland, after jurors accepted that he was in the midst of a severe psychotic episode at the time of the attack.
Henry McGowan, of Brooklyn, was cleared of murder in an Irish court on Thursday in the 2024 death of his 66-year-old father, John McGowan, a wealthy investment professional from the United States.
The verdict means he will remain in a secure psychiatric hospital in Dublin rather than a prison, and a judge will later decide the conditions of his continued treatment and detention. Jurors deliberated for just over an hour before agreeing he was legally insane when the killing happened at the Ballyfin Demesne, an exclusive country estate hotel in County Laois, according to the New York Post.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers both relied on psychiatric experts who said Henry was suffering from schizoaffective disorder and experiencing a psychotic break during the attack.
The court heard that he believed he was a prophet or superhero and that his father was an impostor, not the real John McGowan. He admitted strangling his father and told the jury he said he would always love him as his father took his last breath.
The killing took place on Nov. 12, 2024, one day after Henry arrived in Dublin, and his mental health deteriorated while traveling in Europe, the BBC reported.
John McGowan flew to Ireland on short notice after learning his son had stopped taking his medication and was trying to get hospital care. When no bed was immediately available, the pair checked into the five-star Ballyfin Demesne, where the fatal assault happened in a changing area near the hotel pool.
Jurors also heard about Henry's long struggle with mental illness, including a previous manic episode in 2022 that led to a bipolar disorder diagnosis and psychiatric hospitalization.
In one earlier incident described in court, he tried to take a stranger's baby on a flight, saying he needed to sacrifice the child to save the plane, and was later hospitalized. After Thursday's verdict, Henry was returned to Dublin's Central Mental Hospital, and a further hearing is scheduled this month to finalize his treatment order, as per People.
