Joseph McEnroe was too dependent, submissive, weak and abused by his girlfriend to leave her or to stop her from plotting to kill her family, according to a Canadian psychologist who testified for the defense during McEnroes murder trial on Wednesday...
Dutton said McEnroe had been a neglected child of a promiscuous mother with mental health issues. He had few friends, and most of his adult relationships occurred online, said Dutton, who interviewed McEnroe more than a dozen times before concluding he had both schizotypal and borderline personality disorders. Dutton said McEnroe was so desperate for a relationship with a woman that on four different occasions he flew or took a bus to meet women hed never met in person, even sending his possessions on ahead before his arrival. The fourth woman was Anderson, Dutton said.
Very quickly, he said, Anderson took control of the relationship, limiting McEnroes Internet access, refusing to let him get a drivers license, isolating him and shaming him. The dynamic between the two had all the hallmarks of abusive relationships, Dutton said. It was so unbalanced, he testified, that McEnroe once offered to castrate himself after Anderson raged about his being a sexist male.