A man has been handed an “indeterminate” prison sentence for killing his grandmother under the delusion that the Covid pandemic had turned her into a zombie.
Alan Gingles, from Northern Ireland, killed Elizabeth “Betty” Dobbin on 30 March 2020 at her house in Larne, County Antrim, where he had been living for 10 years.
He was “seeing zombies” that were “shouting at him” while he and Ms Dobbin, 82, were sitting in the living room.
Gingles, 34, used a hammer to strike “at least eight separate blows” to her head and then strangled her, according to a post-mortem.
Initially, he had told officers that he was “hearing voices and that something had come over [him]” before he attacked his grandmother.
Judge Patricia Smyth, reading from written submissions of the prosecution, told Gingles: “[You] thought your granny was turning into a zombie and that’s why you hit her on her head with the hammer.”
She also told him that he believed “people were turning into zombies and it was the end of the world... and that you believed your grandmother was already dead and in a zombie state and was going to harm you”.
Gingles had messaged his father saying he was concerned Ms Dobbin had become unwell with Covid.
The father and Gingles’ cousin discussed the possibility of accessing mental health services for the defendant as it appeared from his messages that he was struggling.
Just after 9pm that evening, Gingles told his father that his grandmother was unresponsive, and an ambulance was called to the house.
Paramedics and police found Ms Dobbin dead with a significant amount of blood on the floor, as well as a blood spatter on the wall, Antrim crown court heard.
After the attack, a hammer was found in a box.
Gingles was initially charged with murder, but the charge was downgraded to manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility, after he underwent psychiatric assessments.
Gingles – who pleaded guilty to manslaughter – had been obsessed with many conspiracy theories since his twenties, Ms Smyth told the court.
He also has a long history of mental illnesses that got worse at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, culminating in the “ferocious” attack, she said.
While Gingles’ diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia was a mitigating factor, there were multiple aggravating factors including Ms Dobbin’s vulnerability, the use of a weapon, that she was attacked in her own home, and the “breach of familial trust”, Ms Smyth told the court.
A GP had given Gingles anti-anxiety medication, but he had thrown the pills away believing that they would kill him, and that the doctor was part of a worldwide conspiracy for zombies to take over the world, the judge said.
Parole commissioners will decide when it is safe for Gingles to be released after a minimum of five years, Ms Smyth told the court.
In sentencing Gingles on Tuesday, the judge noted the impact the “horror and devastation” has had on “wonderful” Ms Dobbin’s relatives and friends.
The case is “tragic”, said Detective Inspector Millar, of Police Service of Northern Ireland.
He said: “Mrs Dobbin had provided a home to Alan Gingles, and it’s here that he was residing at the time of the attack.
“The attack, which was without motive, has taken a woman's life, leaving a family and loved ones bereft.
“There are, unfortunately, no words that can help to ease their heartbreak or undo this tragic event.
“I hope, however, that the guilty finding together with today's sentencing helps to provide some degree of comfort.”
