Failed murder suicide provides rare insight
Garda investigators moved to capture key lessons from tragic case
A DETAILED psychological assessment concluded there was nothing wrong with a man who tried to kill his four children aside from mild depression.
The stay-at-home father, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the children, was this week sentenced to a total of eight years in prison for the terrifying 2016 assaults.
Gardaí had the man medically assessed immediately after he was charged. Detectives involved realised how rare the case was, because both the father, who was suicidal, and his children had survived.
Gardaí wanted a psychological report to provide an understanding to the court of why a man who was devoted to his children would carry out such a brutal act, sources have told the Irish Mail on Sunday.
To the surprise of investigators, medical experts concluded that there was nothing wrong with the man aside from mild depression, for which he had not been taking all of his medication.
A source told the MoS: ‘Usually an incident of this nature ends up with all persons dead and the one thing about it is to hear, for the first time as far as I can remember, the rationale of the perpetrator.’
The source explained that to the father, it was totally logical to kill his children: he wanted to spare them what he believed would be their suffering if he killed himself and concluded the children should die first and then he would die.
‘Gardaí left no stone unturned with regard to the psychological anaylsis. When he was first charged, detectives demanded that he be assessed in the hospital. They wanted to understand what was going on in his mind.
‘There are reports from a lot of professionals, but they all came to the same conclusion. There was nothing wrong with this man’s mind, apart from the fact that he suffered from mild depression and he had been messing around with his medication.’
Detectives were taken aback by the father using the word ‘murder’ in respect of his children and articulating what his intentions were.
The source said: ‘You hear “man kills wife in Kilkenny, drives down to the pier and drowns his two sons” and “man in Cavan leaves note on door, do not enter, call gardai”. In all of these cases, the people are dead and people are looking for answers.’
A case that shocked the country was that of the Hawe family in 2016, where Alan Hawe killed his wife Clodagh and their three sons in the family home before taking his own life.
But this case was different. ‘You had the children pleading with the father not to do it and his rationale afterwards. He told detectives, “I intended to kill them.”
‘He was asked, “What do you mean by killing them? Do you mean murder? Would you use a word like murder?”
‘His reply: “I would. I wanted to murder them.”
‘“Why would you want to murder them?”
‘“Because I didn’t want them to suffer.” ‘“Why would they be suffering?” ‘“Because I would have killed myself.” “Why didn’t you kill yourself then?” ‘“Because I had to kill them first. I did not want them worrying about me, I did not want them thinking of their father committing suicide.”
‘That was ultimately the most revealing aspect of it. I think people when they look at these cases think there must be something grossly wrong with a person’s mind to engage in an act like that. But the rationalisation is incredible.
‘There was a logic to his methodology. He thought, if I am going to kill myself, the poor children will be beside themselves so I’ll just kill them and kill myself. The children’s lives were only saved because their father underestimated how hard it would be to kill them.
His hands became sore as the two eldest boys fought for their lives and he realised he did not have the physical strength to kill them.
Moments earlier he had kissed his two unconscious daughters, aged just seven and three, on the forehead. Convinced the little girls were dead, he turned his attention to the boys’ bedroom.
‘Nothing wrong with man’s mind’ ‘He underestimated how hard it would be’
But he wasn’t prepared for the ‘tremendous fight’ his nine and 11year-old boys would put up and it was then that he came to his senses. The father ran to his own father’s house and told them he had done something terrible to his children.
By this point, the boys had run through the house and jumped out the front window in an effort to raise the alarm. They were found by their grandfather disorientated in their driveway.
The children’s grandfather made his way to the little girls’ bedroom. The three-year-old was conscious and crying on her bed. The sevenyear-old was alive but only barely. She was saved by her grandfather.
The events of that day had a devastating impact on the family, but it could have been a lot worse.
‘I think the judge could see the humanity of the case. For a person like him, 12 years with four suspended, it is a long time to spend in jail,’ concluded the source.
‘The mother of the children is very resourceful. Like any mother, she know she has to keep it as normal as possible for those children. It is a devastating case, but it could have been a whole lot more so.’
Judge Michael White sentenced the father to 12 years imprisonment, with four years suspended. This means he will be released by the summer of 2024. debbie.mccann@mailonsunday.ie