BANGOR (AP) – A man from Ireland who awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to robbing a Bangor bank at gunpoint last fall is seeking to change his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity.

Niall Clarke, 26, claimed to be suffering from a severe mental illness. Newspapers in Ireland have reported that Clarke has schizophrenia, but documents filed in U.S. District Court do not reveal a defense psychiatrist’s diagnosis.

Judge John Woodcock granted a prosecutor’s motion calling for Clarke to be examined by a government psychiatrist. The evaluation will take place at an out-of-state facility, most likely in New York or Massachusetts.

Clarke, who is being held in the Cumberland County Jail, faces up to 25 years on the robbery charge and a mandatory minimum consecutive sentence of seven years for brandishing a weapon. Under federal sentencing guidelines, he most likely would spend nearly 10 years in prison.

Clarke was living in Portland at the time of the Oct. 4 holdup and was arrested while driving on Interstate 95 with more than $11,000, a loaded .38-caliber handgun and a box of ammunition in his possession.

The crime baffled the parents and friends of the award-winning 2002 graduate of Dublin’s Trinity College who majored in computer science and helped launch a software company in his senior year.

While visiting their son in jail after his plea in January, Michael and Mary Clarke of Kilrush, County Clare, told the Bangor Daily News that he was mentally ill.

The government’s request for its own evaluation said the defense psychiatrist concluded that Clarke’s illness “rendered him unable at the time of the crime to appreciate the nature and quality of the wrongfulness of his act.”

The doctor found that Clarke is “currently competent” but questioned whether he was competent to decide to plead guilty.

Allowing defendants to withdraw a guilty plea is rare, according to federal prosecutors. It will be at least 60 days before the government psychiatrist’s report is filed with the court and Woodcock schedules a hearing on the change of plea motion.

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Information from: Bangor Daily News, http://www.bangornews.com

AP-ES-05-22-07 1030EDT