Stephen Silver: The full story of his trial for the murder of Garda Colm Horkan

• Author: Eoin Reynolds
• Published date: 15 March 2023
• Publication title: Irish Times: Web Edition Articles (Dublin, Ireland)

He turned his music up loud and shouted out that he "dared the armed squad come down here now" as he ducked behind walls, paced back and forth and roared "come out ye c**ts" as loud as he could

Nearby residents, startled by the commotion, called gardaí, summoning the encounter that would leave the family of Garda Horkan grieving the needless loss of a much-loved man and a respected member of An Garda Síochána.

Throughout Silver's murder trial at the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin the court was packed with gardaí and Garda Horkan's family and friends. As is often the case in criminal trials, little was heard about the victim. He was, prosecution counsel Michael Delaney said, a single man who lived in Charlestown, Co Mayo with his father at the time of his death. He had spent almost 25 years as a garda, having graduated on September 28th, 1995. In 2020 he had been directed by a superintendent to carry out the duties of a detective and had been trained and authorised to use a firearm and wear plain clothes while on duty for the duration of Covid-19.

'Gentleman' Garda Colm Horkan fourth member of his class killed on duty

His family listened to garda interviews in which Silver insulted and denigrated his victim, questioning his ability as a detective and accusing him of attacking him for no reason and even suggesting he had shot himself. But when Silver took the unusual step of taking the stand in his defence, he said he was ashamed of how he acted in those interviews and apologised to the Horkan family. "There's not a day goes by I don't think about it," he said.

On Wednesday after two trials at the Central Criminal Court, a jury found Silver - who shot Garda Horkan 11 times with his own gun - guilty of capital murder. He will be sentenced on April 19th.

From Aughaward, Foxford, Co Mayo the 46-year-old pleaded not guilty to the murder of Garda Horkan knowing or being reckless as to whether he was a member of An Garda Síochána acting in accordance with his duty at Castlerea, Co Roscommon on June 17th, 2020 but pleaded guilty to his manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.

Detailing to the court his history of mental illness, Silver said he had about 17 admissions to psychiatric hospitals over the years, some voluntary, some involuntary. Poor sleep was a common indicator that things weren't right but, he said, despite his many admissions and diagnoses of schizo affective disorder and bipolar disorder, for most of his life he didn't believe he had a mental illness. He blamed his behaviour on his upbringing - his father was an alcoholic, he said.

He first went on trial on the murder charge last year but the jury failed to reach a verdict.

At his second trial, which began in February, he again took the stand and told the jury he had his first mental health episode in early adulthood when he thought he was "the second coming of Jesus". He had fleeting thoughts and didn't sleep for seven days. His mother and father could see something was wrong, but he thought he was "perfect".

He also told the jury: "There was an episode in September 2001 when I thought the water tank in the bathroom was a nuclear bomb, and I was in charge of keeping it safe."

He didn't have a problem with alcohol, he said, and described himself as a friendly drunk. But drinking would upset his sleep pattern and trigger problems with his mental health. Cannabis, he said, would bring on episodes and he stopped using it about 13 years ago after hitting a friend for no reason.

Silver has one sibling, a younger sister Marian, and grew up in Granlahan, about ten miles from Castlerea. He was married for 13 years but left the family home in February 2020, four months before the shooting. "We just hadn't been getting on that well," he said. He moved into a flat in Foxford but after about three months he couldn't afford the rent so moved again, into his motorbike shed or garage nearby. A motorbike mechanic, he sectioned off one corner where he slept on a futon. He used an overturned door as a desk on which he put two gas cooking rings and a small electric oven. There was a sink but it was not plumbed. To clean himself he would use an outdoor hose to fill a large bottle and he would collect the waste water in a bucket under the unplumbed sink. Outside was a composting toilet. There were bats and birds in the shed roof, he said, but no vermin. It was, he explained, "a good dry shed" and he didn't miss having heating because it was a warm summer.

On living there for about three weeks he told the Central Criminal Court "It was grand and peaceful, you know. I was able to sleep. I wasn't getting as much sleep as I'd normally get, some nights only four hours. When I start not sleeping well I start getting a bitín' unwell. I was thinking about things I had to do, working on the bikes and trying to think how to fix them and go about getting the job done. It would cause me stress". Due to his psychiatric history he was entitled to a disability allowance but did some work as a mechanic, having trained with FAS in Galway.

Once out of hospital, the court heard, he would stop taking his medication as he felt it slowed him down, made him feel sleepy and low and would cause him to put on weight.

His first hospital admission was in 1997 when his family had to call the guards to have him brought in. Some of his involuntary admissions over the years involved violence and threats towards gardaí and staff at the psychiatric units. Silver's final admission was in September 2019, about nine months before the shooting. He had gone to hospital voluntarily but then decided to leave. When staff went to bring him back he assaulted them. He was discharged after several weeks and prescribed Olanzapine, an antipsychotic drug with a sedative effect. Within days of leaving the hospital, he said, he stopped taking his medicine and was still off it when he met Garda Horkan. Coming up to the time of the shooting, he said his head was "busy, a lot going on in it".

Earlier that year he met an Australian woman at a concert in Dublin. She hadn't been able to work due to covid so she was heading back to Australia. They decided to spend her final days in Ireland together and travelled to Dublin on June 15th to stay at a hotel closer to the airport. The following day, Silver said he changed his mind and wanted to go home. He said he began to believe she "wasn't who she said she was" and that she was "up to...