Hawe’s last confession
Killer told of sexual encounter he had as teenager in suicide note
ALAN Hawe made reference to a sexual encounter he had as a teenager with a girl who was the same age in a letter he left after killing his family, it has emerged.
The killer also disclosed in counselling that at a low point in his marriage he had begun to view pornography and had become obsessed that people would find out about it.
However, investigating gardaí did not find anything incriminating about the relationship Hawe had as a teenager and did not discover material on his computer that would be considered criminal behaviour.
Deputy school principal Hawe killed his wife Clodagh and their three sons, Liam, 13, Niall, 11 and six-year-old Ryan, before taking his own life on August 29 last year at their home in Oakdene Downs, Barcony, near Ballyjamesduff, Co. Cavan.
Gardaí investigated a reference Hawe made in his suicide note to a long-ago sexual encounter with a teenage girl when he was the same age as her, The Irish Times reported. It is understood the incident was among a catalogue of issues Hawe disclosed in the lengthy letter he left at the family home.
Gardaí traced the woman and interviewed her as part of their investigation into the murder-suicide. They found nothing incriminating or of concern about the incident or relationship.
Hawe is said to have ‘catastrophised’ the incident from his youth and a number of more recent experiences as a consequence of the psychotic symptoms he had developed at the time of the murders.
However, Clodagh’s family, after the inquest on Tuesday, rejected claims that Hawe was suffering from a mental illness when he ‘executed’ his family.
His imminent fall from his position as ‘a pillar of the community’ and the breakdown of his marriage led him to kill his family in a ‘premeditated and calculated manner’, her family said in a statement earlier this week.
Hawe also disclosed in counselling that at a low point in his relationship with his wife that he had begun to view pornography and that he had become obsessed that people would find out about it, The Irish Times reported.
However, gardaí examined his background, including his computer use history, and discovered no material or activity that would constitute criminal behaviour.
In his suicide notes, Hawe also expressed concerns about his performance as a teacher and how students
Found nothing incriminating Believed he had fallen short in work
at his school perceived him and how he worked, it was reported. He made an unexplained reference to how they might have thought he was not correcting the school work of students properly and that they were ‘probably’ saying that he was on the phone.
He believed that he had fallen short in his work as a teacher at the school, that he was lazy and that people over the summer had been ‘looking at me oddly and not saluting me’, he reportedly wrote in his suicide notes.
He was due to return to work at the school after the summer break on the morning the bodies were found.