ionigeria.com Nigerian Newspaper
A mum who killed her three children has been found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.
Deidre Morley, 44, smothered her nine and seven-year-old sons, Conor and Darragh McGinley, along with her three-year-old daughter Carla on January 24 last year. Their dad, Andrew, discovered their bodies at the family home in Dublin.
Morley admitted smothering the children but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, which the Central Criminal Court has agreed to.
Both the defence and prosecution’s psychiatrists supported the decision, saying the mum had bipolar affective disorder type two.
The two psychiatrists and the jury found that Morley’s bipolar disorder meant she did not know smothering her children was wrong and could not refrain from doing it.
Mr McGinley went to his children’s funeral four days after their death and has now called for a full investigation into their mum’s treatment (Picture: PA)
Justice Paul Coffey, who called the case ‘heartbreaking’, said: ‘The doctors are unanimous in their opinions that the accused was legally insane when she killed her three children.’
Throughout the case, the prosecution had been open to the rare verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity and was not trying for a murder conviction.
Moley will be remanded at the Central Mental Hospital until the end of May.
The dad found his three children dead at their family home after their mum suffocated them (Picture: PA)
A devastated Mr. McGinley agreed the verdict was ‘probably the right one’. He said: ‘Everyone who knows Deirdre knows how much she loved our children and how devoted she was to them.
‘Whatever the outcome of this trial, it remains that our beloved children Conor, Darragh, and Carla have died. As I write this, I’m no closer to understanding why.’
He has called for a full investigation into Morley’s ‘diagnosis, treatment, and medication’ before this tragedy. He claims she had not been diagnosed before the killing and feels the family were ‘excluded’ from her treatment.
The dad said: ‘If Deirdre’s diagnosis was questionable prior to January 24 2020 then surely so too was her treatment and medication.
‘We are now also aware of a number of occasions within Deirdre’s professional care when her initial diagnosis should have been queried but none of these seem to have been fully addressed.
‘We as a family need to be included in any investigation as our exclusion during her treatment has left us with many unanswered questions.
‘We believe that an inclusive investigation can only serve to inform clinicians in their practice and therefore avoid tragedies like ours happening again.
The dad has promised to start several projects to honour the lives of his children (Picture: PA)
‘We do not want any other family to suffer as we have. It is too late for us but I do not want to see another grieving parent speaking in the future about the same exclusion after a similar catastrophic loss.
‘My message here and now to anyone who has a loved one in psychiatric care is to get in there as soon as you can to be added as an advocate for their treatment plan.’
The dad has previously promised to honour his children’s lives by running a colouring competition called Snowman for Carla, continuing Conor’s YouTube channel ‘with the same great sense of humour’ and starting a charity to encourage people to get involved in their communities ‘as Darragh did’.
He also wants to write a series of books based on comic-book characters his sons created together.
