Guilty of murder as coke claim rejected

A MAN who said he was “shovelling” cocaine into himself when he opened fire on a family member with a submachine gun in the victim's front garden was not suffering from a “substance-induced psychotic disorder", a jury has found in unanimously convicting him of murder.

- BY ALISON O'RIORDAN

The jury rejected father-of-six Christopher Devine's defence that he should be found guilty of manslaughter because he had a mental disorder which would have diminished his capacity to control himself.

They also rejected his contention that he was so intoxicated from taking “industrial quantities” of cocaine, combined with large amounts of alcohol, that he couldn't have formed an intention to kill or cause serious injury.