An 82-year-old retired civil engineer was fatally stabbed in the front garden of his home by a neighbour with a history of serious mental health difficulties and drug misuse.
Gerald Ring was sitting in a chair shortly after midday last September when Julian Donoher, then 51, approached him. Donoher removed a knife from his pocket and attacked the pensioner several times.
Despite his injuries, Mr Ring managed to reach his house and call 999. He was taken to hospital but died three days later.
After the attack, Donoher calmly replaced the knife in his pocket and walked away. He later made the delusional claim that he had “killed a paedophile” and would become “a legend in prison”.
Donoher, described in court as a long-term user of cannabis, alcohol, heroin, cocaine and Mamba, had originally been charged with murder. This week, however, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and was given a hospital order.
The prosecution accepted the reduced charge after psychological assessments found that Donoher has schizoaffective disorder.
Derby Crown Court was told that he had previously been diagnosed with several mental health conditions, including bipolar disorder, ADHD and depression. He also had a long history of substance misuse.
His criminal record included multiple convictions, among them offences involving violence and possession of drugs.
One doctor told the court that Donoher’s decision to take illegal drugs had been “a significant contributing factor” in the circumstances surrounding the killing.
Gerard Ring, 82, was remembered as a devoted father who would do anything to support his family.
Julian Donoher, 51, was described at Derby Crown Court as a long-term user of cannabis, alcohol, heroin and cocaine, with previous convictions for drug and violent offences.
After the court hearing, Mr Ring’s devastated daughter, Sapphire Greatorex, called for stronger safeguards around offenders with serious mental health conditions.
The family had asked the judge to impose a prison sentence rather than a hospital order. The court heard that Donoher had stopped taking his prescribed mental health medication approximately nine months before the stabbing.
Mrs Greatorex said her father, who enjoyed solving crosswords and caring for his garden, had been targeted by a “coward”.
“He attacked my dad who was 82 years old and sat in a chair,” she said.
“I’d like it to never happen to another family again, but that’s idealistic. I think things need to change, huge changes need to be made.”
While in hospital, Mr Ring told his daughter: “He just came at me and wanted to kill me, I tried to defend myself.”
She recalled: “It broke my heart. When he said it he was like a child, he was absolutely terrified. I think he knew he was going to die.”
Mr Ring was born in Dublin and lived there until he was 16, before moving to England to work as a builder. His career included major civil engineering projects, including extensions to the M1 motorway.
He had four children from his first marriage to Sandra: three biological children, Gerard, Tracey and Kelly, as well as an adopted daughter, Denise. After working in construction in South Africa, he eventually settled in Derby.
He met his second wife Marie in Derby in 1974. Marie had three children from a previous relationship – Michelle, Guy and Lisa – before Sapphire was born in 1980, and ten years later the family moved to a home in Quarndon.
The couple later moved to Derby where he lived alone following the death of his wife.
The court heard Donoher, a drug user since the age of 20, had suffered a delusion that Mr Ring was a paedophile, and that he had been told by police he needed to ‘take out’ what he said were ‘wrong ‘uns’.
After the attack, he told neighbours he had ‘killed the paedophile’ and had already killed 66 others as part of his crusade.
Mark Heywood KC, prosecuting, said: ‘Unambiguously, there is no truth in any such suggestion. These were delusional comments.’
He said Mr Ring, who suffered from blood cancer and had mobility issues, was a much-loved keen gardener whose neighbours described him as ‘such a pleasant man’.
The prosecutor said Mr Ring was sitting outside his house in the Six Streets area of Derby on the afternoon of September 6, 2025 when he was attacked.
Mr Heywood said: ‘At 2.55pm, Mr Donoher walked straight up to Mr Ring, who was seated, drew something from his pocket and began stabbing Mr Ring, gripping his head in the crook of his left arm as Mr Ring held his wrist as he did so.
‘He made three more stabbing motions.’
Mr Heywood said: ‘Mr Ring managed to return inside his home, get inside and lock the door.
‘He was still able to use his own phone to call 999 and explained to the operator he had been stabbed by a man he did not know.
‘Five wounds were identified and he was conveyed to hospital where, despite the best efforts of the medics, he died at 6.30am on September 9.
‘A neighbour asked Donoher what happened and he put his hands on her shoulders and said to her ‘I have killed a paedophile, don’t worry, darling, it’s alright’.
‘It is right to say there is no truth at all in this suggestion, this was a delusional comment.’
In harrowing CCTV footage Mr Ring can be heard screaming as he is attacked. His family members sobbed as it was played to the court.
Tracey Ring spoke in court ahead of the sentencing to call for a custodial sentence.
She said: ‘Nobody should ever have to watch the horror we did. I’m so hurt and in so much pain having to watch my Irish eyes daddy in pain for four days.
‘It affects each and every one of us.
‘We need to make a stand against knife crime.’
His son Gerard Ring said: ‘He was killed by a coward in his garden – his little spot of paradise where he should have been safe and sound.’
Kelly Charles, another of Ring’s daughters, said the anger she felt was ‘overwhelming’. ‘This last year has added insult to injury. This has all been about him [Donoher], and not my father who should be the centre of all of this.’
Handing Donoher a hospital order, Judge Shaun Smith KC said: ‘You have completely shattered the lives of Mr Ring’s family and they will never recover.
‘You brutally and repeatedly stabbed him and afterwards you put the knife in your pocket and walked away not caring about what you had done.’
