Man jailed for trying to murder four kids

FATHER HANDED A TWELVE-YEAR SENTENCE WITH FOUR SUSPENDED

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 imposed a 12-year sentence but suspended the final four years on a number of conditions.

At the sentencing last Wednesday morning, the judge described a narcissistic element to the crime. He noted that the man said he had planned to take his own life after strangling his children and thought that they would be better off dead than without him.

The man, who cannot be named to protect his children, had pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of his children at the family home in 2016, with one child telling him: ‘Daddy, we can get you help, just don’t do it’.

Mr Justice Michael White had regard to the victim impact statement read by their mother in a sentence hearing last week.

She said she would never forget receiving a ‘ horrible voicemail’ from her eldest child screaming, and a Snapchat of one of her other children on the bed.

‘I knew in my gut something crazy had happened,’ she said.

The judge also took into account a report on the children by Tusla and a report by a psychotherapist on the eldest child.

Regarding the attempted murderer, he considered a medical report from the man’s family GP, some 24 character references by friends, neighbours and community activists, along with a positive prison governor’s report.

He explained that the sentence should take rehabilitation into consideration, and had to consider if sentences should be imposed concurrently or consecutively.

He also said the court had a responsibility to assess the effect of his psychiatric illness on what happened.

Justice White said that, although the attack on each child was of the utmost seriousness, it was appropriate to sentence concurrently due to the timing.

‘ The two younger children were left for dead,’ he noted. ‘ The headline sentence must be life imprisonment.’

He said that the aggravating factors included the horrific nature of the offence and the effect on the children’s lives.

‘ The future effect on their lives is not possible to quantify,’ he said.

Further factors to consider were the effect on their mother and ‘ the narcissistic element of the offences’, in the context of marital breakdown ‘showing complete lack of respect for their autonomy, in the attitude that the children would be better off dead without him’.

In mitigation, he noted the man’s guilty plea, his remorse, his previous good character, his ‘exemplary role as a father previously, which makes it all the harder to understand his crimes’.

He said that, because of the man’s previous psychiatric history, it was appropriate to mitigate the sentence on those grounds.

He noted that the accused had first presented to his GP in 2010 with low mood, paranoia and contemplating suicide. He said ‘ he often thought of taking the lives of his wife and children’.

He was diagnosed with moderate to severe depression and was admitted to hospital and given medication.

He was later also diagnosed with social phobia and a past history of substance abuse and has been on medication since.

‘ The court has not had the benefit of a psychiatric report detailing the reasons for his actions,’ he said.

Justice White imposed a 12year sentence with the final four suspended for four years.

The conditions of the suspension include that the accused have no contact with the children unless they specifically requested it, that he would attend for psychiatric reports, take appropriate prescribed medication and remain under the supervision of the probation service.

He backdated the sentence to take the man’s time in prison into consideration.

The children’s mother was in court to see their father jailed. She left without making any further comment.