People noticed Egan as he entered the Five Lamps Pub in Naas. He had recently been diagnosed with motor neurone disease, the same degenerative muscular condition which had killed his 41-year-old brother four years previously. It was already affecting the muscles in his throat and mouth, impairing his speech and causing him to drool.

Many thought him drunk. The barman couldn't understand him because he was muttering but he was given a pint of Heineken after pointing to the tap. Josie Thorpe, an old neighbour of his, said another woman made a gesture to her, as if to indicate he was mad.

It was not clear whether Egan saw the alleged gesture, which the woman denied ever making, but some time later, he hit her twice on the head.

Brothers Ger and Patrick Cody swiftly removed him from the pub and the night continued on as normal.

However, one more altercation broke out as Egan continued hanging around outside.

He approached Madeleine Dowson while she was smoking. Geoffrey Slack, her partner said: "It was almost as if he wanted to say something serious to her." Egan punched Slack in the the head, to which Slack retaliated with 'a whack in the chest', causing him to fall to the floor, before they went back inside to safety.

Not too far away, Frances and Michael Ralph were out celebrating with close friends.

It was John and Fionnuala Ryan's 25th wedding anniversary and the Ralphs thought it would be 'a nice surprise' to take them out to Maloti's, seeing as "they had never had an Indian meal before." After dinner, they went for a nightcap and left around midnight.

Taxis were scarce and all four laughed as they walked towards the rank directly across from the Five Lamps Pub. In the witness box, Michael Ryan wept as he recounted them slagging their wives, telling them they would have got a taxi if they hadn't talked so much. "They were in great form and it was a lovely night, " he said quietly.

Meanwhile, John Egan had gone home and picked-up a rucksack, in which there was an unused kitchen knife still in its wrapping.

He then returned once more to town and stood in the doorway of ACC bank. Geoffrey Slack and Madeleine Dowson saw him as they left the pub. They remained suspicious and decided to watch him from across the road.

'I still had her by the hand' Michael Ralph was holding his wife's hand when someone shouted 'run'. "I still had her by the hand and we moved out towards the bus shelter. Frances said to me, 'Michael, I think I'm after being pinched, ' and with that, she fell to the ground, " he said."I was still holding onto her.

There was blood everywhere. It was like a river. It was terrible."

He looked up and saw a man with a knife in his right hand. "I was hysterical because there was no ambulance coming and she was just lying there and her eyes were like saucers. It was terrible."

Fionnuala Ryan, who was a nurse, only realised Frances had been stabbed when she saw blood coming from her T-shirt. She knew it was arterial blood because it was a very red colour and suspected it had punctured Mrs Ralph's lung because it was 'bubbly'. "The life just seemed to go out of her, " she said.

Because the nearest ambulance was far away, a garda car took her to hospital, where she was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

"She was gone, " Mr Ralph cried. "She was my best friend."

A number of men followed Egan after he left the scene and held him until gardai arrived. One of these was Patrick Cody, who had earlier ejected him from the pub. Geoffrey Slack was another; John Ryan another.

Gardai took him to Tallaght hospital before bringing him back to Naas Garda Station for questioning. While in custody, he said Mrs Ralph had insulted him. "I didn't notice her at first but she started making pig noises. I took the knife from my bag and put it down on her."

He said he had bought the knife in Tesco a few weeks previously and that he didn't buy it to kill anyone, but rather to protect himself as he felt more confident with it.

Under the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006, which came into effect last March, the defence in last week's court case were able to argue that Egan was not guilty by reason of insanity, and the prosecution accepted this. The facts of the case were not contested, and as such, the special verdict became the issue upon which the jury had to decide and their verdict was to be based on additional evidence given by consultant psychiatrist and clinical director of the Central Mental Hospital, Dr Harry Kennedy. He believed Egan was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the killing. Under the new act, the court ought not hold him responsible for the offence, he said.

He told the court that Egan had a long history of mental illness beginning in 1985 when he stopped working. After his sister died, he began drinking heavily and it was around this time that his behaviour began to give cause for concern.

He was first admitted to the Central Mental Hospital in 1993 following the death of his father and a number of subsequent other admissions followed. Each time, his psychiatric condition was 'puzzling' and gave rise to a 'variety of different diagnoses', for which he was prescribed anti-psychotic medication and tranquillizers.

Paranoid state continuously present He had been in a number of other altercations, including an assault on an elderly woman for which he was sentenced to a period in custody.

His last contact with psychiatric services was in 2003. Now forced to communicate by using a computer which synthesizes speech from what he types, he has also recently had two operations to prevent him from choking on food and excess saliva caused by wasting muscles.

But he also diagnosed Egan as having an organic delusional schizophrenic-type disorder in which a paranoid state is continuously present, marked by occasional persecutory delusions. He cited Egan's belief that his sisters had organised for his uncle's house to be firebombed so as to incriminate him as one such example. He also rejected any suggestion that his drooling could be the stigma which triggered him to be banned from most of the pubs in Kildare, instead believing his admission to them of a sexual assault perpetrated upon him by another male had made them not want him in their pubs. He claimed he had even heard one man in the Five Lamps pub discuss his condition and say, "it couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke."

Egan displayed 'a bland cheerfulness' and 'shallow inappropriate jocularity' when talking about the night of the killing.

Kennedy believed he did not know what he was doing was wrong and that he was unable to refrain from committing the act. Egan, who is estranged from his family, made no sign of emotion as the verdict was read out.

Prosecuting counsel Brendan Grehan said last week: "tragic as perhaps most murders are, this is perhaps more so. The unfortunate victim and her friends had never had any contact with Egan good, bad or indifferent."

A statement on behalf of Mr Ralph and their three children, Daire, Niall and Emmet said:

"For such a good person to have their life taken in circumstances where the law left so many unanswered questions, there will be no option but to pursue those unanswered questions in order to try to prevent any other family having to go through the extreme sadness and loss that we've experienced."