Life for ‘savage’ murder of two elderly brothers
A JUDGE has described the bludgeoning to death of two elderly brothers in their own home as a ‘wanton’ and ‘savage’ crime – as the killer was jailed for life yesterday.
Alan Cawley had admitted killing Thomas Blaine, 69, and John (Jack) Blaine, 76 – who both had special needs. However, he claimed he had mental disorders at the time and therefore should be convicted of manslaughter, not murder.
The 30-year-old’s claims of diminished responsibility were rejected by the jury and Cawley was yesterday sentenced to life in prison for the double murder.
The brothers’ cousin, Paul Dunne, gave a victim-impact statement to the court in which he told of his grief.
‘The notepad I used to communicate with my cousins instead of shouting in their ears is no longer useful,’ he said. ‘Not seeing Tommy sitting in his chair smiling is a terrible loss.’
Both brothers, who lived at New Antrim Street in Castlebar, Co. Mayo, had speech impediments. They were under the care of the HSE, and a home help called to them three times a day. Cawley had been released from Castlerea Prison four days before the murders and was provided with B&B accommodation in Castlebar.
He bought a bottle of wine at around 5pm on July 9 and was seen drinking three pints of Guinness in pubs later that evening. Witnesses described his behaviour as ‘crazy’, with him telling some pub customers that he was a junior doctor, who would be carrying out the autopsies on any bodies found that night.
He also threatened to have one man ‘committed’ with the help of gardaí, warning the man’s wife that she was in danger otherwise.
CCTV footage then captured him walking through the town and crossing paths with Jack Blaine around midnight. Mr Blaine had gone over the road to Rocky’s Bar with his empty tea mug in his hand. As was customary, the barman then made him a cup of tea and carried it across the street, leaving it on his windowsill.
The barman noticed a young man interacting with Jack Blaine as he returned to his house. He thought he was helping him across the road. The young man was Cawley and CCTV captured him entering the Blaine house, with Jack Blaine following behind him.
Cawley told gardaí that he spent about 20 minutes upstairs searching for prescription drugs. He said he found nothing and that ‘the man’ was still downstairs when he came back down.
He claimed that this man, who the court heard was incontinent, was rubbing his genitals. Cawley claimed that he thought the deceased was trying to make a sexual advance on him.
Cawley said the jury was out on his own sexuality. He said he was sick of men, and wanted to show the deceased that men couldn’t always get what they wanted. He said he picked up a shovel and beat him with it.
He said he then made his way to the front door, but saw another man in bed in a room at the front of the house. He said he thought that, as the men were living together, ‘maybe’ they were child molesters. He decided to beat that man too and hit him with a stick about 25 times.
He said he then thought that pouring boiling water over the first man’s genitals would be a ‘fitting punishment’. He turned on the kettle, waited for it to boil and poured the contents over his victim.
He left the house just over an hour after entering, putting on sunglasses, before he walked back to his B&B.
Cawley’s legal team raised the partial defence of diminished responsibility, which can reduce murder to manslaughter.
Mr Justice Paul Coffey explained to the jury that, for that to happen, there had to be evidence that the accused was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the killing and that such a disorder must have substantially diminished his responsibility for his actions.
He noted that the defence’s psychiatrist had said that Cawley had three mental disorders when he killed the Blaines, all of which he said caused him to be more impulsive. The doctor testified that these were attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and emotionally unstable personality disorder.
The prosecution called a forensic psychiatrist in rebuttal. Her opinion was that Cawley was not suffering from ADHD at the time.
She accepted that he had the two other personality disorders, but her opinion was that they did not constitute mental disorders within the meaning of the law as they did not impair capacity.
Following Paul Dunne’s victimimpact statement yesterday, Judge Coffey asked Cawley, from Four Winds, Corrinbla, Ballina, Co. Mayo – to stand.
‘The law demands a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment, which I impose,’ he said. ‘The killings were as wanton as they were savage and I can only express my sympathy to the family of Jack and Tommy Blaine.’
Cawley was then led away to begin his life sentence.
Witnesses described his behaviour as ‘crazy’ ‘Not suffering from ADHD at the time’