US Man Not Guilty in 'Tragic' Murder of His Father in Ireland

An Irish jury has ruled that an American man who killed his father at a five-star hotel was legally insane at the time and is not criminally responsible. Twelve jurors on Thursday found Henry McGowan, 31, not guilty by reason of insanity in the 2024 death of his father, John McGowan, 64, at Ballyfin Demesne, an upscale hotel in central Ireland, the New York Times reports. The panel reached the verdict in just under 90 minutes, after hearing three days of testimony from police and two court-appointed psychiatrists who described the rapid collapse of McGowan's mental health and his family's repeated, unsuccessful efforts to get him urgent care.

Prosecutors said McGowan beat and strangled his 66-year-old father during a psychotic episode in which he believed he was a prophet or superhero and that his father was an impostor involved in a conspiracy, the Times reports. A psychiatrist testified that McGowan did not grasp the reality of what had happened until days later, after intensive treatment with antipsychotic medication.

• The court heard that John McGowan, a successful Wall Street trader, flew from New York to Ireland "without even stopping to drop a bag" to collect his son from a Dublin hospital, the Irish Times reports. After a prescription was issued for mental health medication, he took his son to Ballyfin and was killed in a pool area later the same day.

• McGowan told police that he strangled his father after he shouted at him for being naked in the pool area, reports the Irish Times. "He said I had to take my medication, to me it felt like he was forcing me, I didn't follow the plan," McGowan told police. He said his father's anger made him "super angry" and he strangled him, telling him he would "always love him as he had his last breath."
• The court heard that psychosis, depression, and suicidal ideation were first observed when McGowan was involuntarily hospitalized in New York in 2022. Months later, he was hospitalized for weeks in Paris after he tried to seize a baby on a transatlantic flight, believing it had to be sacrificed to protect the plane. His father traveled to Paris to assist his return to the US. Henry McGowan had sneaked away from family members at his apartment in Brooklyn to rush to an airport and buy a ticket to Paris, the New York Times reports.

• Both prosecution and defense agreed he met Ireland's strict criteria for an insanity verdict, which require unanimous jury agreement that the defendant did not understand his actions, did not know they were wrong, or could not control them.
• McGowan will remain at Dublin's Central Mental Hospital, where a judge is expected to decide next week whether he should stay indefinitely.
• Judge Paul McDermott called it "an awful case" and praised the McGowan family for the "extreme care" they showed in trying to protect Henry, even after the killing. One prosecutor summed up the outcome as "a tragedy that John McGowan, who came on a mission of mercy to help his son, ended up dying." Defence lawyer Michael Bowman said the case was "particularly tragic" because paternal instinct led John McGowan to put his son's wellbeing above his own.