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Murder Trial: Personality disorder affected accused's emotions

Fri, 10 Apr 2015

A Castletown man who's accused of murdering a 60-year-old gardener was struggling to manage his emotions in the run up to the alleged crime.

That's the view of the clinical psychologist who assessed 46-year-old Ian Anderson concluding that he has probable borderline personality disorder.

Doctor Mark Bradley told the jury in his trial that the sequence of events leading up to the death of Ballabeg man Neil Roberts was "unusual" given the circumstances.

On November 30th 2013 Anderson went to Mr Roberts' assistance after he claimed he'd crashed his car - despite knowing his wife was having an affair with him.

They then went to the pub where CCTV footage shows the pair hugging and kissing each other - this behaviour, the doctor said, was "incongruent" to the situation.

The duo returned to Anderson's home on Queen Street where his wife and Mr Roberts confirmed they were in love - something which was said to leave Anderson "emotionally exhausted".

Mr Roberts' body was found in the early hours of December 1st - Anderson claims he was attacked three times but previously told jurors he can't remember parts of the incident. 

Dr Bradley said he was in a "heightened emotional state" and was "unable to control feelings and actions" - admitting this could have impacted the way his memories were processed.

Ian Anderson denies murder - the trial continues. 

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