‘It’s outrageous that the man who killed our son will be able to walk around unaccompanied’

Sometimes there is more at issue than a raw interruption of the family attempting to move on.

Earlier this week, Michael and Paula Loughlin received an email from an official in the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) informing them that the man who killed their son is about to be released.

Jimmy Loughlin was in his flat in Sligo town at around 1pm on February 24, 2018, when Richard McLaughlin, whom Jimmy didn’t know and had never met, broke in. He attacked Jimmy with an iron bar and beat him to death.

McLaughlin then left and was arrested soon afterwards. Later, he told gardaí that he had thought that Jimmy was raping his mother.

McLaughlin, who had a history of violence related to his mental health condition, was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. 

In July the following year, he was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity and detained at the CMH.

This week, the Loughlin family received an email from the CMH revealing that “the Department of Justice have given permission for RMcL to commence Level 3 leave subject to notification to you both as victims”.

The email goes on to point out that Level 3 leave is “unaccompanied leave in the community to facilitate a programme of rehabilitation.”

The Loughlins were devastated.

“Giving this man unaccompanied leave and we don’t even know whether all the necessary assessments have been completed,” Michael Loughlin told the Irish Examiner.

“It’s not only negligent but ignores the profound impact this has on us. 

We have a right to understand how such a decision has been reached, what safeguards are there for the community, and to honour the memory of Jimmy.

The family’s reaction is rooted in far more than understandable distress at the release of a man who impacted in a profound manner on their lives. 

Equally, their questioning of the decision to release McLaughlin is based on more than an amateur take on mental health care.

McLaughlin had a history of violence related to his condition long before his brief and fatal encounter with Jimmy Loughlin.

His parents split when he was young and from the age of 12 he was smoking cannabis. It was suggested in one report that McLaughlin’s father also suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.

The first reported incident of violence was in 2008, when McLaughlin was 21. 

He was referred to St Columba’s psychiatric hospital for “wrecking his mother’s house as she had got rid of his dog”, according to a subsequent psychiatric evaluation. 

His mother reported the incident to the gardaí and took out a barring order. For the following 10 years, he was in and out of St Columba’s psychiatric hospital.

In April 2012, McLaughlin was brought to the facility by his mother with a Garda escort. 

He had threatened to kill his mother the previous week and on the day of his admission he had broken staircase bannisters. 

By then he was smoking cannabis daily. He was prescribed an anti-psychotic drug and referred to addiction services.

Two days later, he left the hospital without informing anybody and went to his mother’s house. 

She was in bed, and according to a psychiatric report compiled weeks later, he blocked the door of her bedroom and said: “You are going to die today, bitch. It is over. I’ve decided we are both going to die today. 

I will take anybody out who comes against me and they will all be coming soon from Columba’s because they told me if I left they would make me stay… there will be a lot of blood spilt today and it will be all your fault.

He was reported to be swinging a machete.

The gardaí were called and a siege ensued for over two hours. 

Later, his mother revealed that there had been incidents previously in which he had “blocked her bedroom door with a couch while she was in the room, pouring lighter fluid on the couch and threatening to burn the house”.

His mother didn’t report any of this to the gardaí because “she was worried about her son going to prison”.

He was prescribed medication but issues arose over a failure to take it as per the prescription.

Pretty soon, the gardaí were worried about the threat that McLaughlin could pose to public safety. 

The inspector in Sligo station, Paul Kilcoyne, noted in an email to the HSE: “In an effort to allow An Garda Síochána to respond appropriately to any further reports or incidents I am request(ing) that I am kept informed of any changes to Richard McLaughlin’s status at St Columba’s Hospital to include full or temporary release or any instance where he is absent without permission.”

There were further incidents in the same vein over the following years. 

In April 2015, Insp Kilcoyne, in an internal email, alerted colleagues about him.

“In the event that a call is received in respect of Richard McLaughlin or if he is encountered in any situation each member is advised to proceed with extreme caution and report the matter immediately to enable an appropriate response to be considered. Please brief each member under your control immediately. Report any developments, please.”

He left hospital in 2015 but in October 2017 exhibited signs of a relapse.

One neighbour of his at the time said he was a “violent man” who would go around the rear of the apartment block with boxing gloves and begin punching a wall.

In early February 2018, McLaughlin’s mother telephoned a social worker who was liaising with him and said she was very worried for his welfare.

A social worker appointed to liaise and assist McLaughlin contacted the HSE. 

Later, it would be claimed that an appointment was then made for him but before that, on February 24, he beat Jimmy Loughlin to death.

Quite obviously, McLaughlin had a long history of instability, mental illness, and violence prior to killing Jimmy. 

Now the CMH has determined he is suitable for unsupervised release.

In such circumstances, it is entirely understandable if the victim’s family is highly sceptical on the basis that McLaughlin was repeatedly released from a psychiatric facility in earlier years and repeatedly lapsed into violent behaviour.

There is no minimum time that McLaughlin is required to be detained. 

Anybody in his position has a right to be freed once it is deemed they no longer suffer from the condition at issue when the verdict was returned.

Under Section 14(1) of the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006 the clinical director of a “designated centre” may with the consent of the minister for justice direct the temporary release of a patient “on such conditions and for such period or periods as the clinical director deems appropriate”.

At the moment the only such designated centre is the CMH. 

The release is temporary because the patient can be detained immediately if the condition manifests itself again.

That is how the law operates. 

It should and must take account of the rights of a perpetrator. 

That does not diminish the rights of a victim’s family but it can certainly resurrect traumatic feelings for them. 

However, the specifics of this case, with the long history of repeated violent incidents and relapses, has hugely heightened concerns for the Loughlins.

Victims of crime are entitled to some information about the management of a perpetrator’s detention. 

Eighteen months ago, the Loughlins were informed that McLaughlin was to be released under supervision.

“We were asked was that OK,” Michael Loughlin says. 

“We said not with us and then there was a zoom call with me and Paula and we were told he wouldn’t be considered for that release and they would keep in touch with us. The next thing we hear is the email this week saying he was getting unsupervised release.”

The other matter afflicting the Loughlins is the failure of the HSE to fully investigate what went wrong with McLaughlin’s care that he was free to kill Jimmy Loughlin.

The family has not been told whether McLaughlin will be excluded from the Sligo area. The HSE will not comment on individual cases but a spokesperson said that depending on circumstances “some patients may be subjected to geographical exclusion zones” as a condition of discharge.

Legal action

After Jimmy’s death, the Loughlin family took a legal action against the HSE over how it had handled McLaughlin. 

In 2023, the action was settled with a large financial contribution and an apology. 

The latter was delivered in a crowded courtroom in a highly insensitive matter, but it fulfilled the legal agreement.

Yet, the HSE never did what is called a serious incident report into what had happened. 

This is considered vital in any scenario such as this as a learning mechanism.

Last August when questions were submitted on the matter by the Irish Examiner, a spokesperson for the HSE replied that a tender had been issued to identify some entity which would conduct the investigation. This was six and a half years after the violent killing. This week, in response to a question on whether or how far the investigation has now advanced the HSE replied that it is still “progressing to tender stage”.

Previously the HSE stated that the long delay in conducting the investigation was attributable to the “complexity of the case” and the legal action that was taken. However, in other cases, some high-profile investigations have been conducted irrespective of any legal action being in train.

Michael Loughlin has compared this approach to a serious incident investigation to one that occurred in Nottingham in which three people, including the daughter of an Irish doctor, were stabbed to death in 2023 by a man suffering severe psychosis. 

Within a year the investigation had been completed and the British government announced that a public inquiry would follow.

“It’s so similar to what happened in Nottingham,” he said.

“The only thing is that man in Nottingham was in contact with the health services for just three years, where as Richard McLaughlin has a much longer history with the HSE.

“And in Nottingham they managed to have an investigation, inform the families, and the UK government saying it will conduct a public inquiry, all within a year. Nobody has done any of that for Jimmy or for us in over six and a half years.”

He points out that now he and his family are being told that McLaughlin is suitable for unsupervised release yet the full circumstances of how he came to kill have not been properly investigated.

I think it’s outrageous,” he says. “How can they have the full picture? The HSE haven’t conducted a serious incident report and they’re telling me that the man who killed my son is able to walk around Dublin or wherever unaccompanied.”