THEY FOUGHT FOR THEIR LIVES
Hawe children’s arms and hands slashed defending themselves from evil dad
ALAN Hawe’s two eldest sons desperately tried to save themselves when he attacked them as they lay sleeping.
Liam, 14, and 11-year-old Niall suffered slash wounds to their arms and hands as their evil dad knifed them to death.
But he ensured the boys and youngest son Ryan couldn’t call out for help by cutting their throats.
Deputy state pathologist Michael Curtis said: “That action would have rendered speaking or making noise impossible.”
A female garda wept during the first day of the inquest as she recalled the scene last year in Co Cavan where Hawe also murdered his wife Clodagh before taking his own life.
The kids’ granny revealed how she told her daughter’s neighbour: “I think Alan has done something awful and killed them all.”
ALAN Hawe cut his sons’ throats to make sure they could not cry out, an inquest heard yesterday.
And he killed his wife and the older boy first to avoid a “physical challenge” from either of them.
Teacher Clodagh, 39, and her sons Liam, 14, Niall, 11 and six-year-old Ryan were murdered in their Co Cavan home last year.
Deputy state pathologist Michael Curtis told the court details of their last moments, stating it could be no coincidence that Hawe silenced each boy by stabbing their windpipe so he could end their lives without them alerting anyone else in the house.
In each case he said: “I would find it very difficult to believe it was a coincidence that each of the boys’ injuries were at their Adam’s apples rendering them unable to make a sound. Death would have ensued rapidly.”
Dr Curtis added he believed deputy school principal Hawe, 40, knifed his wife and Liam before attacking Niall and then little Ryan.
He told the court: “The impression I have is that he killed Clodagh and her older boy first and so reduced the possibility of a physical challenge, it made that unlikely.”
WOUNDS
The doctor assured the coroner’s court sitting in Cavan that no other party had been involved in the deaths of the family in August 2016.
The harrowing details of the deaths of Clodagh and her sons were revealed in the opening day of an inquest yesterday.
Dr Curtis told the court that when he entered the family home at Barcony outside Ballyjamesduff, he first saw Alan Hawe in the hallway. He had died as a result of hanging.
In the lounge was Clodagh who had suffered devastating injuries to her head and throat.
An axe and a knife were on the bloodied floor beside her body.
Dr Curtis said she was facing down on the settee and had suffered axe and stab wounds to her head and neck.
She had also been stabbed in the back, the impact broke her shoulder blade. Clodagh had axe-blow injuries to her hand as she had tried to protect her head.
She died from axe puncture wounds to her head and neck.
Liam, Niall and Ryan had fatal throat wounds and were found by gardai in their pyjamas covered by duvets.
Liam was stabbed on the left side of his neck twice, leaving an 8cm deep wound, damaging his jugular vein and carotid artery. He also had suffered wounds to his forearm and hands, described by Dr Curtis as defensive injuries. Niall, who shared a room with his big brother, suffered a single stab wound to the left side of his neck which was also 8cm deep.
The blade sliced through his windpipe rendering speaking or sound impossible.
Niall also had defensive wounds on his right hand. Cause of death was given as a stab wound to the neck.
The injuries suffered by six-year-old Ryan were too much to bear for the family and some members of the jury and media present.
The youngster had suffered a deep incision to his neck which cut through his jugular and windpipe.
Cause of death was a deep incise wound to the neck. The pathologist entered the family home after the bodies were discovered on August 29, 2016. He pronounced the entire family dead in a gruesome 39-minute examination.
Clodagh’s mother Mary Coll was the first to take the stand at Cavan Court House yesterday as her surviving daughter Jacqueline Connolly looked on from the gallery.
She fought back tears as she revealed how after initially fearing the family had been a victim of carbon monoxide poisoning, she told a neighbour: “I think Alan has done something terrible and killed them all.”
The previous evening the Hawe family had visited Mrs Coll in her home in Virginia.
She said Liam was in great form following a win at a basketball game earlier in the day. And before the Hawes left for their Barcony home, arrangements were made for Clodagh to bring her youngest sons back to their grandmother’s home the following day while she and her husband returned to work as teachers.
Mrs Coll told the court: “I thanked Alan for bringing the goodies for tea and wished him good luck because I knew he wasn’t looking forward to going back to school.”
When Clodagh, Niall and Ryan did not turn up at her home as arranged, Mrs Coll made several calls and texted her son-in-law.
When there was no response, she drove to their house outside Castlerahan. At the back door
I found Clodagh with a pool of blood around her. An axe and knife were on the floor
GARDA ALAN RATCLIFF CAVAN COURTHOUSE YESTERDAY
she found Hawe’s note warning: “Please do not enter, please call the gardai.” Mrs Coll dialled 999 and within 26 minutes Gardai Alan Ratcliff and Aisling Walsh were at the scene.
Garda Ratcliff said: “At 11.21am I entered the kitchen and called out to identify myself. There was no reply.
AXE
“I went from the kitchen to the sitting room and discovered a female I now know to be Clodagh Hawe, lying on her stomach on the settee with a pool of blood around her.
“There was a knife and a small axe on the floor. There were no signs of life present.
“In the hall Alan Hawe was hanging. I went upstairs to the rear of the house and found two young children, whom I now know to be Liam and Niall, in single beds.
Both children had suffered injuries to their throats. In a small room at the front of the upstairs I found a young boy who had suffered a wound at his throat. A knife lay in the pillow beside him. There were no signs of life present.
“I informed Mrs Coll I had found no one alive in the house.” Garda Ratcliff requested assistance and Mrs Coll was helped to neighbour Edith Harrigan’s home. Garda Aisling Walsh confirmed her colleague’s witness statement and momentarily broke down in the witness box as she recalled the scene.
Garda Walsh apologised to the court but insisted on
reading her own statement to coroner Mary Flanagan before signing her statement. Thanking the officer Dr Flanagan said: “You are visibly upset and no one can imagine what it was like that morning.”
In the kitchen on the table were a number of documents, a handwritten letter and a sealed white envelope, all of which were blood stained.
Det Sgt Grant told the court the knife found on Ryan’s pillow was a Kitchen Devil branded carving knife.
Seven hours after gardai arrived at the family home, the bodies of Clodagh and the remains of Hawe were placed in a series of hearses and taken to the morgue at Monaghan
General Hospital. Hand and
DISTRESS Gda Aisling Walsh fingerprints taken from the deceased showed that he had held the axe which lay beside his dead wife.
An examination of handwriting in a birthday card and a list written by Hawe gave gardai a match to the handwriting found in the notes and letters left on the kitchen table and on the back door.
Garda John Sweetman told the court partial bloody fingerprints had been left on some of the paper after being touched by Hawe’s left little finger and left fore finger.
He was also found to have the blood of his son Liam on the knee of the jeans he was wearing and blood stains on the sleeves of his T-shirt.
The inquest continues today. news@irishmirror.ie IRISH MIRROR COMMENT: PAGE 10
He killed Clodagh and her older boy first and so reduced possibility of physical challenge
DR MICHAEL CURTIS CAVAN COURTHOUSE YESTERDAY