Man at center of Irish cannibal murder found not guilty by reason of insanity

An Italian man who killed his landlord and dismembered his body has been found not guilty by reason of insanity for the murder of his friend Tom O’Gorman.

Saverio Bellante (36) admits to killing freelance journalist and part-time worker at the Iona Institute Tom O’Gorman (39) after an argument over a game of chess in O’Gorman’s house in Beechpark Avenue, Castleknock, West Dublin in January 2014. The pair resided in the house together as landlord and tenant.

Following the argument, Bellante is believed to have killed O’Gorman with a dumbbell and a knife and cut out his right lung before calling police to admit to his crime at 1.50 am on January 12 2014. The lung was found in a plastic bag in the kitchen of the house in Castleknock when police arrived on the scene.

He thought the lung was O’Gorman’s heart and planned to cook it and eat it.

"I was thinking of eating his heart ... I left the smaller part and ate the bigger part, the smaller part wasn't for me," prosecution counsel Patrick Gageby SC read from a statement Mr Bellante gave to police.

Police officer Patrick Traynor told the jury of the scene when he arrived at O’Gormans house saying he found the journalist lying across the carpet with a hole in his chest.

A picture of the late Tom O'Gorman rests on the altar at a memorial service for him at St Teresa's Church in Dublin.

On behalf of his client, defense counsel Sean Guerin SC made nine admissions under Section 22 of the Criminal Justice Act including an admission that Saverio Bellante killed Thomas O'Gorman.

In 2005, Bellante had been diagnosed with psychosis in his native Italy and had continued his treatment and medication in Dublin on moving to Ireland.

Gageby told the jury that the Italian man had also been previously diagnosed with having religious hysterical deliria.

Bellante had discontinued his medication two days before the murder on the advice of a Dublin psychiatrist. He denied the charge of murder.

Following a two-day trial, Justice Margaret Heneghan told the jury at the Central Criminal Court that they must decide if Bellante is insane although she believes that the evidence suggests it to be true.

During the course of the trial evidence was given by two psychiatrists to suggest that Bellante was insane and Heneghan believes that this evidence cannot be ignored.

Once the jury had delivered the verdict, Justice Heneghan ordered that Bellante be examined by an approved medical consultant and he has since been committed to the Central Mental Hospital.