A lawyer who stabbed his father 27 times told gardaí that he believed he was doing the right thing and had paranoid thoughts that made him think his dad would hurt his mother and sister, the Central Criminal Court heard on Tuesday.

Daire McCormack George (31) told gardaí that he got on with his dad, Scott George (76), most of the time, and that they loved one another.

However, he said these "paranoid thoughts had me thinking he would hurt my mam and my sister."

He said before the stabbing, his father showed him family pictures that he hadn't seen before and was "going on about Trump and China and I just lost it".

He added: "He told me he loved me, but I just kept stabbing him."

McCormack George, with an address at Cabra Road, Phibsborough, Dublin 7 has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the murder of his father, Scott George.

Vincent Heneghan SC, prosecuting, on Tuesday. told the trial jury that George was found dead at his home at Drumans End, Tobersool, Balbriggan on December 12th 2024 having been stabbed 27 times.

Heneghan said it is accepted that the accused man inflicted the injuries that caused his death.

Heneghan said the jury would hear from psychiatrists acting for the defence and the prosecution who will say that the accused has a history of psychosis and was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the killing.

Counsel said the psychiatrists will say that Mr McCormack George was not acting rationally and that his mental disorder was such as to render him not guilty by reason of insanity.

Det Gda Ultan McIlroy told Mr Heneghan that on December 12th 2024, the accused finished work with the solicitor firm, Mason, Hayes & Curran in Dublin city and went to his apartment in Cabra where he picked up Christmas gifts and two knives.

He drove to the family home in Balbriggan where his dad was alone as the accused man's sister Hillary and mother Goretti visited other family members in Navan.

Det Gda McIlroy said there is uncertainty about what happened in the house, but the accused took out a knife and stabbed his father.

At about 11pm that night, the accused spoke to his sister on the phone while she and her mother were on their way back home. The accused told his sister that he had killed their father.

Hillary tried to calm her brother until she and her mother arrived at the family home about 12 minutes later.

She found Mr McCormack George with blood on his clothes, and he again told his sister he had killed their father. Det Gda McIlroy arrived, having been called by a neighbour, and went into the house.

He found George lying face down in a back room with blood all around him and on the wall.

He had significant injuries to the back of his neck and further stab wounds were evident when gardai turned him over, the detective said.

The garda noticed a knife on the ground, which was placed in an evidence bag. The detective could find no signs of life and paramedics later confirmed that George was dead.

During the first of three interviews at Balbriggan garda station that night and the following day, McCormack George told gardai: "Yes, I killed him, but I don't consider myself guilty of a crime. I love my mother and sister, nothing matters more than them."

He told gardaí that he had a nervous breakdown the previous summer, having gone to Oxford University where he realised he was not as intelligent as he thought he was. He said he hadn't been sleeping and believed his dad was going to hurt his mother and sister.

He said he "just lost it" and repeated several times that he would do anything to save his sister and that she is "the future".

"I thought I was doing the right thing, but I made it much worse," he said during a later interview.

The trial continues on Wednesday before Judge Eileen Creedon and a jury of ten men and two women.