'My children would be alive if campaigners were listened to': Dismay over familicide report

Una Butler with her daughter Ella in May 2010. Ms Butler was bitterly disappointed that the report did not contain mention of including the family in the care of mentally ill loved ones, while Andrew McGinley said that had Ms Butler been listened to following her children’s deaths, then his three children would still be alive today.

Parents of children who were killed by the parent's spouse say “failures” of a landmark report on familicide to adequately address mental ill-health leave families vulnerable to future tragedies.

Cork woman Una Butler, who contributed to the familicide review, was bitterly disappointed that it did not contain mention of including the family in the care of mentally ill loved ones.

She has been campaigning to make it mandatory for partners to be involved in the mental health treatment of their partner where there are children.

Ms Butler launched the campaign after her husband, John, killed their daughters Ella, 2, and Zoe, 6, at their home in Ballycotton, Co Cork, in November 2010, before taking his own life. He had been released from the mental health services only six weeks earlier.

Another victim, Andrew McGinley, said that had Ms Butler been listened to following her children’s deaths, then his three children, Conor, 9, Darragh, 7, and Carla McGinley, 3, would still be alive today.

His children were killed by their mother, Deirdre Morley, in January 2020. She was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.

Mr McGinley believes that had he been involved in his wife’s mental health care, their children would not have died.

“I got a sense of disappointment from a number of people I spoke to who contributed to the report,” said Mr McGinley. 

There was very little in the recommendations about mental health. When is it going to change? 

"How many lives are enough that someone is going to sit up and say, ‘we have to make a change here'.”

Ms Butler was “very disappointed” that the study did not contain any dedicated chapter or detailed references to filicide — where a parent kills a child. No official database of these deaths exists but Ms Butler conducted her own research.

This is, she said, despite the fact that there have been at least 53 children murdered by one of their parents in more than 37 incidents in Ireland since 2000. They involved at least 20 fathers and 17 mothers, with 60% of them having previous contact with the psychiatric services.

Kathleen Chada, whose sons Eoghan, 10, and Ruairí, 5, were murdered by their father Sanjeev in July 2013, welcomed the review, which she said contains many important recommendations.

She said she was “very disappointed” for Ms Butler that it contained no mention of involving family in the mental health care of loved ones.

Government response

The Government has now promised to set up a number of groups to both prevent and respond to familicides following the publication of the landmark report.

Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe told the Dáil that the Government will work to implement recommendations. 

“When I see the reports of these crimes and, in particular, when I see the funerals and see those who are mourning the loss of life due to these crimes, I find it difficult to comprehend," he said. 

"I find, actually, my human response is to briefly look away — particularly if involves the loss of life of children and we’re all aware of recent crimes and tragedies that have involved this.

“But this is where the role of the State is so critical because we have a duty not to look away. We have a duty to engage, we have a duty to support.”