Wealthy New Yorker believed infant needed to be sacrificed to save a flight, court hears

Alison O’ Riordan

Two years before he strangled his 66-year-old father at a five-star Midlands resort, a wealthy New Yorker lunged at a family on a flight to Paris while under the delusional belief that their infant child needed to be sacrificed to protect the plane, a trial has heard.

A second psychiatrist on Thursday told the trial of Henry McGowan, who is accused of the murder of his father John, that the defendant was suffering from schizoaffective disorder and fulfils the criteria for a special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Professor Gautam Gulati told Brendan Grehan SC, prosecuting, that Henry McGowan's mental illness is characterised by elated and depressed mood, delusions, misidentification, paranoia and grandiosity.

The consultant forensic psychiatrist also found that the accused had an abnormal mental state leading up to the offence and was suffering from an acute psychotic episode.

On Wednesday, a consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Stephen Monks, called to give evidence by the defence, told the trial that the accused was experiencing a relapse of schizoaffective disorder when he strangled his father and did not at the time know the nature or quality of the act, did not know what he was doing was wrong and couldn't refrain from committing the act.

Expert witness Dr Monks found that Mr McGowan was suffering from an acute psychotic episode and met the criteria for a special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity under the Criminal Law Insanity Act 2006.

Mr McGowan (31), with an address at Clinton Street, Brooklyn, New York, in the United States has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the murder of John McGowan (66) at Ballyfin Demesne, Ballyfin, Portlaoise, Co Laois, on November 12th, 2024.

The trial has heard that John McGowan travelled to Ireland from the US on a "mission of mercy" to look after his son after phone communication with Henry caused "considerable concern for his welfare".

Evidence has been given that the accused described "in detail" how he strangled his father with his bare hands in a changing area off the pool, putting a "full fist into his throat", just over an hour after arriving at Ballyfin Demesne.

In his evidence today, Prof Gulati told Mr Grehan that he met with the accused at the Central Mental Hospital on October 17th, 2025.

The witness said the accused told him that his most significant relationship ended just before he went on his travels to Europe and that he became unwell around this time, thinking he was going to be the next President of the US.

Asked about the accused's prior contact with the law, Prof Gulati said Mr McGowan told him that he was arrested on his arrival at an airport in Paris in 2022 after he had lunged at a family with a child on a flight from the US and had to be restrained by passengers.

Mr McGowan told the psychiatrist he became convinced on the flight that he was seeing snakes in people's eyes and that a massive war was about to break out, where he had to kill an infant child to stop it.

The accused told Prof Gulati that he had asked a woman to hand over her child based on his delusional belief that the infant needed to be sacrificed to protect the plane.

Following his arrest, Prof Gulati said the accused was involuntarily admitted to the Sainte-Anne psychiatric hospital in Paris for 28 days.

When he returned to the US, Mr McGowan was given a long-term psychotic drug via injection.

Prof Gulati told Mr Grehan that schizoaffective disorder is a mental disorder within the Criminal Law Insanity Act 2006.

The witness said the accused did not know at the time the quality of the act and believed the man he was killing was not his father but an imposter involved in a conspiracy.

The psychiatrist said Mr McGowan also did not know what he was doing was wrong and instead believed he was morally justified in acting, as he believed the man he was killing was evil.

He also said the accused could not refrain from committing the act.

The trial continues this afternoon before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of six men and six women.