Man, 26, who had ‘plan to hunt someone’ before plunging knife into neck of gran on Dublin Christmas lights trip jailed. Another Mental Health Case??

Quigley, the court previously heard, has no previous convictions but had come to garda attention on a number of occasions for mental health issues

AN ATTACKER who travelled to Dublin city centre with “a plan to hunt someone” before randomly plunging a knife through the neck of a grandmother who had come to see the Christmas lights has been jailed for 12 years.

Gretta McCullough, 64, was walking with her husband when without warning she was struck violently from behind with the blade of the seven-inch knife by Darragh Quigley, 26, a schizophrenic who had stopped taking his medication.

Mr Justice Paul Burns said today that this was a “totally unprovoked” attack, where the knife had gone “right through” the neck of the middle-aged woman but “miraculously missed all crucial structures”.

Quigley, of Carndonagh Road, Donaghmede, north Dublin had pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of Ms McCullough on November 16, 2023 at Chatham Row, Dublin 2.

Mr Justice Burns said a UK-based psychiatrist found that Quigley had a significant history of involvement in mental health units since his teenage years and was diagnosed in 2023 with suffering from drug-induced psychosis.

He said the psychiatrist also found the defendant has schizophrenia and was actively psychotic at the time of the offence.

However, the judge said the expert witness had also concluded that Quigley did not meet the legal criteria to support a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity and that the defendant could distinguish right from wrong.

Quigley, the court previously heard, has no previous convictions but had come to garda attention on a number of occasions for mental health issues.