Garda tells of scene of horror in family home

GARDA Alan Ratcliffe was the first person to turn the key in the back door of the Hawes’ four-bed dormer bungalow — and within minutes he uncovered the scale of the atrocity.

Entering the house at the back of the Oakdene estate in Co Cavan, he called out and identified himself, but heard no reply.

Minutes earlier he had arrived at the house with his colleague Aisling Walsh after Mary Coll, Clodagh’s mother, found a note on the back door in Alan Hawe’s handwriting telling whoever read it to contact gardai.

Giving evidence at the inquests, Mr Ratcliffe said he entered the kitchen first, and then the sitting room. He said he saw the body of a woman, who he since learned was Clodagh, lying on her stomach on a settee, with a pool of blood beneath her. There was no sign of life.

“There was a knife and a small axe on the floor,” he said. Entering the hall he saw Alan Hawe, and again there was no sign of life. Mr Ratcliffe said that he then went upstairs in the dormer bungalow, and entered a rear right bedroom where he saw two single beds against one wall, and the bodies of two young males, who he later learned were Niall and Liam Hawe.

“I then entered a second rear room and saw a single bed with the body of a male child,” he said, adding that he later learned the child was Ryan Hawe.

On entering the master bedroom, Mr Ratcliffe said he saw jewellery and jewellery boxes laid out on the bed.

He alerted his colleague Garda Walsh and then broke the news to Mary Coll that there was no one alive in the house.

Garda Walsh (left),

who became ONLY six years old when he died, Ryan was the youngest child in the family. Clodagh had suffered some health problems and was told she might not be able to have any more children, but Ryan arrived five years after Niall.

“He had fabulous blue eyes that would dance when he was telling you a story. And he was always up to mischief. Ryan the Rebel we called him,” said his aunt Jacqueline.

“He had an angelic voice and sang in the choir,” she added. upset as she spoke at the inquest, said that the three boys had their duvets over them.

Detective Sergeant John Grant from the Garda technical bureau said he saw documents, a letter, and a sealed letter on the kitchen table, some of which were bloodstained.

Detective Garda Colm Nolan from the fingerprinting section of the Garda technical bureau gave evidence that a palm print which was discovered on the bloodstains on the handle of a hatchet matched that of Alan Hawe. A 55-YEAR-old man has appeared in court charged with trying to murder his elderly father.

Alan Lockhead, whose address was given as HMP Maghaberry, has also been charged with wounding his mother.

The accused, whose solicitor stood beside him in the dock of Belfast Crown Court, was charged with attempting to murder Desmond Lockhead on March 22 this year, and of wounding Sylvia Lockhead with intent to do her grievous bodily harm.

After both charges were put to Lockhead, he replied “not guilty” to each offence.

Although no details of the charges faced by Lockhead were mentioned yesterday, a previous bail hearing was told that Lockhead is accused of trying to strangle his elderly father with a telephone cable in the couple’s Belfast home.

He is also charged with stabbing his mother when she tried to intervene.

Lockhead’s barrister said he was awaiting medical reports, and also revealed Lockhead will be undergoing psychiatric tests ahead of the start of the trial.

While no trial date has yet been set, Judge Patricia Smyth said she hoped it would commence around next March.

Following yesterday’s brief hearing, Lockhead was remanded back into custody.