He will spend his life in the hospital. The UK, Ben Mogione, 23, was sentenced to life in a hospital unit safe after the bloody murder of her 64-year-old father-in-law, Andrew McDiarid.
The facts date back to January 24, 2022. At around 8:30 a.m., while she was taking a shower at the family home in Heswall,
the young man’s mother heard “a strange noise” inside the house. “It wasn’t a scream but a draft, like a very noisy draft“, confided Alison Moglione during her son’s appearance at Liverpool Crown Court last March.
“There was blood and I knew by seeing his face that he was dead.”
Shortly after, Ben Moglione stormed into the bathroom where his mother was, bloody hands. Alison initially thought her son had slit his wrists, but that wasn’t the case. The blood wasn’t his. “He said, ‘You can do it again.’ He said it in a very strange way. I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ I ran into my room and saw Andy on the bed. There was blood and I knew by seeing his face that he was dead.”
Despite his son’s pleas to
“do not call the police”Alison Moglione contacted the authorities. The 23-year-old was arrested and taken into custody in a hospital unit at Clock View Hospital in Walton. “I don’t think he knew what he had just done.”, his mother continued at her son’s hearing. According to her, Ben had no reason to kill his stepfather, whom he loved and considered his biological father.
He was suffering from postictal psychosis when he committed the murder.
An autopsy revealed the presence of 17 stab wounds to Andrew McDiarid’s body, some inflicted with “a lot of strength“. But if there is no doubt about the violence of the crime, there is doubt about the circumstances of it. At the hearing held in March, it was stressed that Ben Moglione was suffering from postictal psychosis at the time of the murder, a delusional state of varying duration following a series of epileptic seizures.
A state of mental fragility that seems to be confirmed on the audio from the surveillance cameras of the house broadcast during the trial. We hear Ben enter the living room, where his father-in-law was isolated with Covid, before saying. “Hello how are you ?” “Yes and you ?”, répond Andrew McDiarid. “Not really”, Ben answers in turn before of the
“screams, grunts and very deep breathing” are not heard.
Criminal irresponsibility held for the young man
Based on the evidence presented at the hearing in March,
the court found that Ben Moglione was not criminally responsible for his crime. “The prosecution is now satisfied that (…) your ability to understand the nature of your conduct, to form a rational judgment and to exercise self-control has been significantly impaired,” Judge Andrew Menary KC declared to the young man this Thursday, June 27, 2024, according to the Liverpool Echo. These circumstances taken into account, Ben Moglione was sentenced to life in a secure hospital unit.
