'I just want them back' - Court hears how Deirdre Morley killed her three children

The prosecution said the murder trial is all about intent and whether Ms Morley had the mental capacity to know what she was doing at the time

Deirdre Morley (pictured) has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the murders of Conor, Darragh and Carla McGinley.

“I just want them back,” is what a woman accused of murdering her three young children said in her first Garda interview following the killings.

Deirdre Morley, 44, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the murders of Conor McGinley, 9, and Darragh McGinley, 7, and Carla McGinley, 3, at their home in Parson’s Court, Newcastle, Co. Dublin, on January 24, 2020.

She used a white bag to suffocate Carla that afternoon and a black bag to kill one of her boys.

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Conor said "no mummy" just before she killed him.

Carla was still breathing after her first attempt to kill her so she took her upstairs to the bed where her dead brother Darragh had been placed and smothered her again, the Central Criminal Court heard.

In an interview given at Clondalkin Garda station on January 28, 2020, Ms Morley, who had previously been admitted to St Patrick’s psychiatric hospital, said: “I was feeling very low and overwhelmed. I was trying to power through but my thoughts were getting a lot darker in the last week.

"I had wanted on and off for a long time to not be here. I started to think that I couldn’t leave the kids behind. I became very remorseful about the impact of my mental illness on the kids.

“I felt the kids wouldn’t be equipped to deal with life.” 

She said that she believed it would be “a life full of pain for them.” 

 “I felt I hadn’t given them enough love. I started to think that they were more damaged than I think they were.” Darragh had stayed home from school that day as he had been feeling unwell, coughing a lot the night before. Carla stayed home from creche that day too.

“At around 12 o’clock I just had to end our suffering,” Ms Morley said.

“I got some tape, brown tape, brown thick tape, and a plastic bag and I suffocated Darragh in the front room in the tent. I brought him to bed upstairs.

"Carla was watching a movie in the other room, the dining room. I’m not sure if I put tape over her mouth or not, I put a bag over her head and a cushion over her mouth and smothered her.

“I brought her upstairs and she was still breathing. So I held her nose until she wasn’t breathing anymore.” 

“I got the bags under the sink. I think a white bag for Carla, for Darragh, a black bag.” Ms Morley then collected Conor from school early, signing him out for ‘family reasons’.

She admitted that she intended to kill him “because we all had to go.” But she said that she was “already regretting what she had done.” When she got home she put tape over his mouth, pretending it was a game.

“I put it on my mouth first like it was a game. He put it on his mouth and tried to talk through it. I put a bag over his head and turned him over.

“He said ‘stop mammy, what are you doing?’ “I said ‘I’m sorry Conor.” 

“He struggled a bit but didn’t jump up because I was on top of him. He was face down, I had my knees on top of him.

I just want them back.

When he returned from work, Andrew McGinley, Ms Morley’s husband and the children’s father, found Conor’s feet poking out from the children’s play tent.

One note left by the stairs said: “Don’t go upstairs, phone 911.” Another note left near Conor said: “I’m so sorry, I can see no future… I had to take them with me. I’m broken and couldn’t be saved or fixed…I’m so sorry.” 

Prosecution case

Prosecution for the DPP, Anne-Marie Lawlor, said that this murder trial is all about intent and whether Ms Morley had the mental capacity to know what she was doing at the time.

“That is at the heart of this case.

“Whether she had the capacity to do so when the case occurred. In this case, there is no issue about what happened or how the children died.

“The person is not guilty if suffering from a mental disorder.” She said that both psychiatrists who submitted reports on Ms Morley’s mental health concluded that she did suffer from a mental disorder.

“She couldn’t imagine that her children would ever lead healthy lives. She felt there was no alternative. She felt they had to go together.

“This is a desperately sad case.” The trial continues.