Fr Patrick O'Donoghue (Pic: Flicker)
A priest who was due to join killer cannibal Saverio Bellante and his victim Tom O’Gorman for dinner says he cancelled because of a ‘premonition’.
Father Pat O’Donoghue who is based in Cobh, Co Cork said the brutal killing had a traumatic effect on him, according to The Sun.
Saverio Bellante was committed to the Central Mental Hospital earlier this year, for an indefinite period, after he was found not guilty of the murder of Tom O’Gorman by reason of insanity.
Saverio Bellante
During the trial it was revealed that Bellante had eaten part of Mr O’Gorman’s lung.
The court heard he thought he took Mr O'Gorman's heart out of his chest with his hand but it was in fact his lung.
"I was thinking of eating his heart, I washed it and ate the bigger piece and left smaller one,” he said, according to a statement which was read to the court.
“I didn't cook it, I left the smaller part and ate the bigger part, the smaller part wasn't for me."
Fr O’Donoghue was due to have dinner with Mr O’Gorman and Bellante a few weeks before the killing, according to The Sun:
“I felt a sense of chaos in the world after Tom’s violent death," he said.
“They were part of my story which was touched by violence. I felt very unsettled.”
Tom O'Gorman
According to reports the priest said he had a premonition that he shouldn’t meet the two men for dinner, saying:
“I can’t explain it, I just knew I should not go and I cancelled. I think I felt the presence of evil.”
In August Bellante was committed to the Central Mental Hospital after three separate forensic psychiatrists found him to be a schizophrenic and said he would need medication for the rest of his life.
Doctors agreed he was in an acute psychotic state on the night of the killing.