Mother of murdered children says ‘mental illness is swept under carpet’
A WOMAN whose husband killed their two children in a murder-suicide said it was unacceptable that the Hawe inquest did not address why Alan Hawe did what he did.
Cork-based Una Butler told this newspaper: “What stands out for me is the inquest did not address why he did it and that he suffered with severe depression.”
Her husband, John Butler, who had been receiving treatment for depression, killed daughters Ella (2) and Zoe (6) in Ballycotton, Co Cork, in November 2010, in a murder-suicide.
Speaking of the Hawe family tragedy, she said: “There needs to be more in-depth investigations into these awful horrific tragedies. Every single one of them is different and unique. They all have different circumstances. With this case, it was pre-meditated and calculated.
“But with all these cases there is a common factor in which society seems to be brushing mental illness under the carpet.
“We need to protect our children and learn from these horrific tragedies.
“There needs to be more investigations to learn from them.”
Ms Butler said there had been 28 murder-suicides since 2000, and 32 children had been murdered by a parent.
“Half of those people who carried out the crimes were known to have had contact with the psychiatric services. It’s a common factor that is going unnoticed,” she said.
“Society seems to think that it’s acceptable in some way, that it is an answer.
“They need to investigate in order to learn and to prevent.
“It devastates so many people, not just the family and friends but the community as well.
“It’s absolutely terrible having to live with it.
“It’s not good enough to have to say the inquest did not address why he did it. They just have to investigate further in order to learn.”
Ms Butler called for changes to the Mental Health Act to facilitate family involvement in treatment, while protecting patients’ confidentiality.
Family involvement would help health professionals to gain a greater insight into the person’s behaviours at home.
“The health professionals don’t have to break patient confidentiality in terms of what the patient is telling them.
“If there was more family involvement, everyone would benefit by more insights into the behaviours. And the family would be educated as to how best to support that person that’s suffering,” she said.
“I’m speaking from personal experience that there is no support for the family of the person that’s suffering.”
She has stated in the past she believes her children would be alive today if she was involved in her husband’s treatment and had more information.