Helen O'Driscoll: ‘It was the sickness that killed them’

The mother of a young man who stabbed his twin siblings before taking his own life has described how much it meant to her that an inquest jury recorded an “open” verdict in the killings.

“It meant an awful lot to me because, at the end of the day, god love him, he didn’t know what he was doing”, said Helen O’Driscoll whose adopted son Jonathan stabbed her twin boys Patrick and Thomas in Charleville last year before taking his own life.

“They [the jury] didn’t come back and say he did this, that or the other. It really wasn’t Jonathan that did it, if you know what I mean. It was whatever sick person took over him. That’s the person that did it.”