He thought two were dead and moved on to kill others

A MAN has been jailed for eight years for attempting to murder his four children, two of whom he thought he’d succeeded in killing.

The Central Criminal Court yesterday imposed a 12-year sentence but suspended the final four on a number of conditions.

The judge described a narcissistic element to the crime.

He noted the man said he’d planned to take his own life after strangling his children, and thought they would be better off dead than without him.

The dad, who cannot be named, had pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of his children at the family home on June 3, 2016.

Mr Justice Michael White took into account a report on the children by Tusla and a report by a psychotherapist on the eldest child.

Last week the Central Criminal Court heard harrowing details of his attempts to strangle the four children, believing at one point he had killed two before moving on to the others.

RESISTED

They resisted and their dad ran to a nearby relative and told them he had done something stupid.

The kids were taken to hospital and treated for injuries, one of them was unconscious when found.

The judge revealed the headline sentence should be life in prison.

However, he said he had to take into account the aggravating and mitigating factors before passing the appropriate sentence.

Mr Justice White said among the aggravating factors were the horrific nature of the offences, the effect on the children’s lives and their future lives.

In mitigation the judge took into account the man’s history of psychiatric illness and its contribution to his state of mind.

However, he noted he did not reach the threshold required for a defence of insanity.

The judge also took account of the fact he had previously played an “exemplary role”, which made the offences all the more difficult to understand.