A man who assaulted a sleeping 88-year-old hospital patient who subsequently died of a heart attack should receive the “maximum sentence permitted by law”, his family have told a sentencing hearing. Dylan Magee, 33, was found guilty of the manslaughter of “true gentleman” Matthew Healy by reason of diminished responsibility in December.

He had been charged with the murder of the pensioner on January 22, 2023, at the Mercy University Hospital (MUH) in Cork, Ireland. A trial at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork heard the men, who didn’t know each other, had been placed in the same hospital ward.

Mr Healy was taken to hospital on January 13, 2023, after he fell out of bed and hit his head at home in Berrings, Co. Cork. His wife, Delia, had died earlier that month, the Irish Mirror reports.

Magee, of Churchfield, Cork, was admitted to the hospital six days later after a referral from his doctor. He was in a hallucinatory state, seeing dead people and hearing voices.

On an antidepressant for a month before his hospital admission, Magee had self-medicated with cannabis and claimed to have taken 120 benzodiazepines in the week before he was admitted.

A hospital toxicology screening also revealed he had morphine and cannabis in his system.

Jurors were told Magee had been placed in the same ward as Mr Healy and that shortly after 5am on the morning of January 22, 2023, Magee became agitated, launching an attack on the elderly patient, who was asleep in another bed.

Magee punched Mr Healy between four to six times as staff tried to stop the attack. The thug struck Mr Healy a further three times before staff managed to drag him away.

One nurse suffered a broken finger while trying to restrain Magee, who screamed: “This man ate my son.”

Questioned by gardaí after the attack, Magee claimed an individual had been tormenting patients on the hospital ward, but no such person existed.

He admitted he had “lost the plot” and started beating Mr Healy under the mistaken belief the pensioner was a named individual in his twenties who had “ate his son.”

Both the defence and prosecution consultant psychiatrists involved in the case agreed Magee’s capacity to restrain himself from carrying out the attack had been impaired.

Mr Healy’s daughter Claire described hearing of her father’s death as a “sucker punch” at a sentencing hearing in Cork on Friday (March 27).

She said: “When I heard he had been attacked by another patient, I was convinced I must be trapped in a nightmare that I would eventually wake from. But I will never wake up from that nightmare.”

She added: “My brother was burdened with the horrendous ordeal of having to formally identify Dad’s beaten body in the morgue. I was spared that trauma, but it also meant that I never got to say goodbye.”

Ms Healy said her father deserved to slip away from this world as gently and kindly as the man he was not lying in bed terrified, then choking on his own blood after being beaten to death by a man shouting he had eaten his children.

She said: “Words can’t express how traumatising it has been to discover that the attack was carried out by someone who went on a drug binge, suffered delirium from the withdrawal and then pleaded diminished responsibility.”

Ms Healy characterised the verdict of guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility as being only appropriate for “genuinely ill individuals.

She said: “Not for those suffering delirium due to self-induced drug withdrawal. We are the product of our choices and I will never accept excuses suggesting the perpetrator was not responsible for his actions. His own life choices led to him punching our Dad to death.”

She requested that the court impose the “absolute maximum sentence permitted by law” and stated that no member of her family “should ever have to fear crossing paths” with Mr Magee again.

Ms Healy described her father as a “gentle soul” with a “beautiful heart”. She said he would have been “absolutely petrified” at what was going on in his room at the Mercy Hospital, but would have been too polite to say anything.

She also expressed her anguish at the conduct of the media in the aftermath of the tragedy, stating that headlines had been sensationalised and reported information was inaccurate.

Magee, represented by Senior Counsel Brendan Grehan, expressed remorse for the suffering caused to the family and friends of the deceased.

Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford extended her condolences to the Healy family. She had previously remarked that one could reasonably conclude both men had been failed by the system.

The judge indicated she would need time to deliberate on the sentencing. Magee was remanded in custody ahead of sentencing on April 17.