The tribunal found that several events had occurred in John's life to make him perceive that things were getting progressively worse for him. The report included minute details of the siege and Carthy's life, right down to a heartbreaking letter he wrote his girlfriend after their breakup, apologising to her for being hot-tempered with her, explaining that he often found it difficult to control his disorder. The breakup with his girlfriend, loss of employment, and most importantly, a false arrest combined with assault in custody, combined with his gun being taken as a result of Garda subterfuge, on foot of a report, not properly investigated at the time and subsequently proven false, that he had threatened to shoot children in the Handball Alley, which he had used, and which he had been central to restoring.