'I had breasts larger than a 40-year-old woman when I was 13': Male Kerry CAMHS survivor reveals the bizarre cocktail of drugs that stole his childhood...and the Seamus Heaney line he uses to keep positive about the future

Published: 13:06, 14 July 2026 | Updated: 13:11, 14 July 2026 A young man who developed breasts and had to have them surgically removed after he was fed a bewildering cocktail of drugs has vowed to never give up his fight for justice until those responsible for the Kerry CAMHS scandal are finally held to account. Davin Godfrey is one of hundreds of children who were harmed by horrific failures at Kerry’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. And he is now seeking a State apology from the Taoiseach for the suffering they endured. Like many others, Davin lost much of his childhood when the Health Service Executive (HSE) and CAMHS filled him full of dangerous, inappropriate and completely unnecessary drugs between the ages of seven and 19. One of the consequences of this drug regime saw Davin balloon in weight and develop breasts as a teenager that later had to be surgically removed. Remarkably, however, he is not bitter about the suffering he endured. ‘I can’t let myself be resentful or angry,’ he tells the Irish Mail on Sunday as he gazes out over the glistening waters of the River Shannon in Limerick city through thick-lensed glasses. ‘I’m mindful, obviously, but I’m not angry because that takes away from happiness.’ Davin points to a small sign, fixed to the riverside railing before him with cable ties. ‘The past does not predict your future,’ it reads. The message is a plea from Limerick’s mental health services to would-be suicide jumpers, intent on ending it all in the river. Davin admits he considered suicide himself as a teenager. ‘I have been suicidal, but I never went about attempting it.’ Instead, it was others – the very health professionals responsible for his care – that nearly killed him. Davin justified this by pointing out that neither he nor any of those who have reviewed his treatment in CAMHS has ever found any way of justifying what happened. Rather than receiving the simple supports he needed for his autism as a child, he was fed a dangerous mixture of antipsychotic drugs, sedatives and other medications – none of which were based on any mental health diagnosis. Risperidrone and quetiapine – powerful antipsychotics – were among the mix.  So too were sertraline, an antidepressant, and olanzapine, used for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Then came benzodiazepines to slow down the brain and the nervous system and zopiclone, an insomnia medication. ‘It was just total f***ing confusion, and I know I’m cursing, but I have to. It does it justice,’ explained Davin about the drug cocktail. ‘I was having medications thrown at me left, right, and centre.’ Now poised to begin a degree in law and politics as a mature student at the University of Limerick, Davin asks a pertinent question about the multiple medications forced upon him in his childhood: ‘Was that equivalent to an assault, under the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Persons Act? ‘It was chemical restraint – chemical assault. It’s poisoning. ‘I couldn’t, and I didn’t, consent to it and it was given to me against my will – and I was poisoned.’ Davin Godfrey is one of hundreds of children who were harmed by horrific failures at Kerry’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services If not criminal, Davin said his treatment at the hands of the health system certainly amounted to ‘wanton neglect’. The consequences were horrific, and potentially fatal. ‘To be quite honest, I don’t know how I’m still alive.  'I don’t know how I’m still here at 24 years of age.  'I’m now fit and healthy and happy. I never thought I’d see it, because I thought I’d be six feet under at 15 or 16.’ Prior to being initially medicated with risperidrone at the age of seven, Davin suffered from anxiety but led a normal enough childhood in his home town of Listowel. An Xbox aficionado, he was sporty and played in goal.  He was a Man Utd fan and friends nicknamed him Davin de Gea after the club’s then-keeper, David de Gea. But risperidrone is notorious for prompting weight gain and for altering hormones, especially in pubescent teens. ‘I increased in weight. I began to become very depressed. I began to have out-of-body experiences and hallucinations at 12-13 years of age, and I was out of touch with reality, and obviously then I increased in weight,’ Davin recalls. ‘At 16 I was 25 stone – once I stopped fitting into size 46 pants I stopped counting. ‘I had to buy clothes on a website for bariatric patients.’ Then came the breasts which he subsequently had to have surgically removed in 2023. ‘It [risperidrone] increases your prolactin levels, so I developed grade-three gynecomastia….I had breasts larger than a 40-year-old lady when I was 13.’ The accompanying pain he endured was ‘excruciating’. ‘It physically hurt my chest, where I would try and grab my breasts and pull them out of my body, where I felt like I was going to die.  'That was the extent, and it’s harrowing, but it’s factual, and I’m not here to…[exaggerate] it. ‘I’m here to tell it as it is, and I felt at 13 my chest was going to explode, and my organs and my thoracic region were going to explode, and I was going to die from it.’ Physical discomfort was accompanied by bullying.  As Davin spent most days zombie-like in bed, his education fell by the wayside. Unlike most of his classmates, he didn’t attend his debs and after a poor Leaving Cert, no CAO offer came through the letterbox. ‘My ability to participate in education heretofore has been severely restricted.  'It’s only now I’m starting to get back into the swing of things.  'I shouldn’t have had to wait until I was 24 to go into third level as a mature student.’ The Kerry CAMHS scandal first emerged publicly with the publication of the 2022 Maskey report into care failures in South Kerry. That report – prompted by the actions of whistleblower Dr Maya Sharma – then led to an examination of the situation in North Kerry CAMHS, which was responsible for Davin. The North Kerry look-back review, known as the Halpin report, was published in February 2026 and showed the very same problems. Thanks to these reports, it is now known hundreds of children in both North and South Kerry were damaged by horrific and inappropriate polypharmacy practices. ‘It was front page of every paper,’ Davin recalls.  'There was no hiding away from it and that’s when I noticed clinicians were identified by name that I would have had dealings with. ‘Medications were identified that I was presently taking at that time or would have taken in the past… immediately my ears just pricked up, like “there’s something wrong”.’ Then on February 1, 2022, Davin attended a routine mental health appointment, expecting to see his usual consultant. But the consultant had been called away due to a suicide attempt elsewhere. That tragedy, involving a stranger he has never known, would change Davin’s life. In place of the usual consultant, a junior doctor took the appointment and reviewed Davin’s file to familiarise himself with the case. There and then, Davin was told he didn’t need any of the medications he was on, and that he would be weaned off of them in a controlled fashion. ‘At 16 I was 25 stone – once I stopped fitting into size 46 pants I stopped counting' ‘That junior doctor wiped me clean of six different medications on that day,’ recalls Davin. ‘Had I not seen that junior doctor, I wouldn’t have found out then… it would have been much later, and it would have delayed my recovery, my prognosis.’ But by then Davin was an addict.  Not of his own making, but an addict nevertheless. And the withdrawal was horrific and lengthy. ‘I was shaking and shivering… for the best part of two years, I didn’t know when my next withdrawal was around the corner… that’s no life to be living.’ At times, Davin demanded and received cyclizine – a drug that can ease physical withdrawal symptoms such as nausea – from his GP. Now he is fully recovered and eager to make up for lost time. And though he is not angry, he is determined to see justice prevail. One avenue is a civil case proceeding through the courts that he cannot speak about. ‘In the interests of justice, I have to be very cautious of what I say in relation to the proceedings.  'So, what I’m going to say is that I want justice, and I will do whatever it takes to get that.’ For Davin and others, justice could also involve a Medical Council inquiry, already pending – and the possibility of court trials. But whatever shape justice takes, Davin is confident that, one way or another, those responsible will be held to account. ‘Oh, their day is coming,’ he said.  ‘Their day is coming, and I’m not angry – because I know that their day is coming.’ In the meantime, there is something else he wants; a formal State apology in the Dáil. ‘I’ve yet to see a healthcare scandal, in my view, that is bigger than the CAMHS scandal,’ he added.  ‘There’s been some big ones, and there’s probably going to be more big ones around the corner, but as of today, I’ve yet to see one that’s at such a high magnitude as where we are.’ To Davin, a Dáil apology would be ‘an exoneration and a vindication’ of his life, and that of hundreds more like him. ‘It would be the State working with these young people and not against them.’ Davin is confident that, one way or another, those responsible will be held to account. He is due to meet Taoiseach Micheál Martin next month to further the issue. ‘I’m very grateful that the Taoiseach has agreed to meet with me,’ he said with the calmness and confidence of someone who is far beyond his years. Nothing, it seems can now hold this man back. ‘I’ll be the guy that I wanted when I was young,’ he continued.  ‘Despite all I’ve been through, I’m a very happy person.  'I am very laid back, I’m very relaxed. I enjoy Limerick, I enjoy the River Shannon.  'The happiest memories of my life were spent around the corner there in Thomond Park, and down by the bridge.’ ‘I’m living life my own way now. I’ve not been chemically interfered with.  'I have a great quality of life, I have great people around me, and only great things to come. ‘The world is my oyster. There’s no stopping me.  'There was for a while, but those days are over.  'They’re in the rearview mirror, they’re well gone. ‘I know how to mind myself, and look after myself, and I know how to get where I want to go.’ Along the way, Davin has a motto he always keeps in mind.  It comes from a line in the epic poem, Station Island, by Seamus Heaney: ‘You have to try to make sense of what comes, remember everything, and keep your head.’ Kerry CAMHS victim Davin Godfrey has paid a moving tribute to Dr Maya Sharma, the consultant whose whistleblowing lifted the lid on the scandal. ‘She’s an absolute hero,’ Mr Godfrey told the Irish Mail on Sunday this weekend. ‘She’s a lifesaver, just like a ring buoy to save somebody who’s drowning in the river. That’s what she is. She’s a lifesaver.’ Dr Sharma was compensated in a court settlement by the HSE for being punished after she exposed the CAMHS scandal – but then ended up homeless in London when a negative HSE reference prevented her from securing a vital job there. Dr Sharma is now preparing to return to Ireland to open a new private practice for children in Killarney. ‘I don’t think she fully realises just how much of a huge impact she’s had on children and young people at the county,’ Mr Godfrey continued. ‘I’m glad to see her doing well and flourishing, though she’s had it hard. ‘People forget about her, genuinely forget about her. I’ve never forgotten about her. She didn’t deserve that... what she’s been through.’ Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.