A FATHER WHOSE son, who has schizophrenia, allegedly assaulted a priest and three others on the Maynooth University campus has told a court that he believes his son has never received adequate care for his illness under the health system.

Damien Connolly Prouse, age 28, of Ballivor, Co Meath, appeared at Naas District Court today charged with four counts of assault causing harm, two counts of criminal damage and one count of burglary.

At the beginning of the hearing, the State said it had a letter confirming a psychiatric assessment had been carried out after Prouse was arrested and that the medical opinion presented was that Prouse was fit to understand the proceedings. The defence objected but the judge accepted the evidence and proceeded with the hearing.

Giving evidence, Garda Elaine Commins of Leixlip Garda Station told the court that gardaí responded to the scene at the St Patrick’s Pontifical University campus at Maynooth University on the evening of Monday 3 February 2025.

Prouse is alleged to have approached a priest who was walking through the campus and to have asked him whether he was a priest.

The priest answered that he was and he was then allegedly punched by Prouse, Garda Commins said.

The priest was brought by ambulance to hospital after the incident. He suffered significant damage to his eye and is awaiting surgeries to try to preserve his sight.

Prouse is also charged with assaulting three other individuals on the campus.

Garda Commins said the attacks were “unprovoked” and that the accused and the victims did not know each other.

He is also alleged to have damaged the body of the priest’s car and to have knocked off its wing mirrors, as well as trying to gain entry to a building on the campus and to have broken off a door handle of the building in the process.

Garda Commins told the court that a witness said that during the course of the incident, Prouse made a remark about paedophiles.

While being interviewed later by gardaí, Prouse showed no regret or remorse for his actions and believed he had done the right thing, Garda Commins told the court. She said that Prouse made full admissions to gardaí during the interview.

She said that the seven alleged offences all occurred within a period of around half an hour.

The garda said that Prouse has no prior convictions or bench warrants but noted later that he had previously come to the attention of gardaí.

She said she does not believe Prouse was under the influence of any intoxicants when she arrived at the scene on Monday evening.

Gardaí objected to bail on the grounds that they said they were concerned the accused could interfere with witnesses and that they believed there was a risk of him committing offences while on bail.

The defence lawyer for the accused, Mark Gibbons BL, refuted the suggestion that the accused would interfere with the witnesses, saying that he does not know the witnesses, and emphasised the accused’s lack of previous convictions.

Gibbons argued that because the investigation is at an early stage and gardaí have not yet sent a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions, the accused, if not granted bail, could end up being held in custody for quite some time while the file is being prepared.

The accused’s parents were both present in the court and his father asked the judge if he could speak.

Mr Prouse Sr was sworn in and outlined to Judge Desmond Zaidan that his son was diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 11 after he lost several people who were close to him and that his struggles with his mental health “snowballed” from then on.

Making an emotional appeal to the judge, he said that he believes his son has never received adequate care to fully understand and treat his illness.

He said that his son was an in-patient in a psychiatric unit in Drogheda on several occasions last year for a total of four months.

He said that his son’s medication was changed last year and that he had “gone downhill” after the change.

He said he had asked the hospital not to release his son but that he had been released.

The father said that he believes his son “needs real help” and that there is a “stigma about schizophrenia” in society.

He said he understands that his son’s alleged actions were “horrendous”.

He said that his parents are “absolutely broken”.

He said that on the evening in question, he had been with his son in Maynooth but that they became separated and that was when the alleged incidents occurred.

He said that he doesn’t believe his son can be out of custody but that he believes he needs proper help and that he has not previously received such help.

He said his knowledge of his son’s condition had not been taken into consideration by doctors.

Judge Desmond Zaidan said there is “something not right with the psychiatric system” in Ireland that next-of-kin input is not taken into consideration as part of assessments and that the government needs to change the law on this in order to allow doctors to have a “full picture” of the patient.

He said that “members of the Oireachtas need to change this” and “need to broaden the scope of clinical history” that can be taken as part of assessments.

“It’s an ongoing issue,” the judge said, adding that legislators “cannot sweep it under the carpet”.

The judge thanked Mr Prouse Sr for addressing the court.

“It takes courage for a parent to come in and address me in a frank and honest manner,” Judge Zaidan said.

He commended the man, who became emotional after addressing the court, for speaking in an “honest and forthright manner”.

Giving his decision, Judge Zaidan said that he would not grant bail in this case.

He said that his recommendation would be to refer the accused to the Central Mental Hospital but that from prior experience he believes that the response from the hospital would be that it does not have a bed available.

The judge ordered that at Cloverhill Prison, the accused must not be housed in the main wing of the prison but kept in its medical wing.

He ordered a full psychiatric assessment and said that the accused should be given treatment for any serious medical illnesses that he is diagnosed with.

“This man needs the proper assessment and treatment,” the judge said.

“The allegations are very serious” but “we now have a rough idea why he may have behaved the way he did on the day in question”, the judge said.