Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Five knives used in ‘gratuitous’ killing of two pensioners
Couple, 83, victims of random attack
A MAN with paranoid schizophrenia used five knives as he killed two pensioners in their own home in a “gratuitous, sustained and frenzied attack”, a court heard yesterday.
Thomas Scott Mcentee stabbed husband and wife Michael and Marjorie Cawdery, both 83, multiple times when they returned from their weekly shopping trip to find him committing a burglary.
Mr Cawdery was also beaten by the 41-year-old and there is evidence he was conscious when some injuries were inflicted, Belfast Crown Court heard.
A sentencing hearing before Mr Justice Adrian Colton was told the couple’s daughter discovered the bodies of her parents after the horrific attack in Portadown, Co Armagh, in May last year.
In a victim impact statement read in court, Wendy Little Cawdery said: “We have prematurely lost their all-important guiding influence which has had a devastating impact.”
Mcentee, who was arrested in a nearby field hours after he killed the pensioners, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Both defence and prosecution agree he was suffering from acute mental illness when the incident took place.
They also agree Mcentee does not need to serve his sentence in a hospital setting, and should instead go to prison.
However at Friday’s pre-sentence hearing, the lawyers were at odds over how aware Mcentee was of what he did.
Defence barrister Kieran Mallon QC insisted his residual culpability was minimal, given his “extremely disturbed mental state”.
But prosecutor Peter Irvine QC argued culpability was at the higher end of the scale, noting he had taken actions to conceal the crime, such as pulling window blinds and changing clothes.
Mcentee, whose previous address was given as the Simon Community, Moorfield Court, Kilkeel, Co Down, but who is currently being held at a secure mental health facility, sat impassively in the dock wearing a white shirt and flanked by healthcare workers.
Mr Irvine told the judge the victims’ vulnerability was an aggravating factor, adding: “The attack against them was gratuitous, sustained and frenzied.”
The court was also told of Mcentee’s erratic behaviour prior to the attack.
The day before, he was reported to police amid claims he was approaching women in Warrenpoint, Co Down.
Officers picked him up and left him at Newry train station. That night he broke into a van and slept in it.
The next day he was reported naked in public in Camlough, Co Armagh.
He was taken to Craigavon Area Hospital after expressing suicidal intentions but left before a full assessment was carried out, stole a bottle of wine from a nearby off-licence and less than 90 minutes later stabbed the couple.
Judge Colton said he would pass sentence next Thursday.
We have prematurely lost their all-important guiding influence WENDY LITTLE CAWDERY VICTIM’S DAUGHTER