A court’s heard a Clondalkin man on trial for murdering his ex might be a ‘compulsive liar'.
Eric Locke of St John’s Park East denies murdering Sonia Blount at the Plaza Hotel in Tallaght following a brief relationship. He claims he was suffering from a mental disorder and that diminished his criminal responsibility.
The court's heard Eric Locke lured Sonia Blount to Room 346 of the Plaza Hotel by using a fake Facebook account where he strangled her with a phone charger and his hands. The 35 year old admits killing her but said he didn’t mean to.
Consultant psychiatrist Sean O’Domhnaill for the Defence has spent the past two days giving evidence and believes Eric Locke had a mental disorder at the time of the killing.
He said he suffers from a pervasive developmental disorder and has signs of autism, Aspergers and ADHD. He believes once Eric Locke started strangling Sonia Blount he couldn’t stop. The accused dressed the deceased after he killed her to give her dignity in death the psychiatrist said.
On the issue of intention, Dr. Ó Domhnaill initially said it would be hard to pinpoint when, if at any point, he did form the required intent but he later accepted that it was entirely possible that he carefully planned to falsely imprison her and then intentionally killed her.
The psychiatrist also accepted the accused might be a compulsive liar.
Earlier the court heard Eric Locke's family believed he had a serious psychiatric condition that was being missed.
