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On 20 May 2021 a Dublin court acquitted 44-year-old nurse Deirdre Morley, 44, of murdering her three minor children because of her serious mental illness. Connor, 9, Darragh, 7, and Carla, just three, were found dead at their home in Newcastle, south Dublin on 24 January 2020. On the day the three children were murdered their father, Andrew McGinley, was away on a business trip.
"I felt so worthless," the mother told the psychiatrist at Tallaght University Hospital who examined her after the murders of her three children. "They (the children) were incomplete like me, because I couldn't be a parent, I couldn't be strong," the mother had testified to police before her trial. According to related reports in the Irish Times, although the three siblings were gifted children and were loved by their parents, the mother thought her children were "cursed".
Judge Paul Coffey, the jury (10 men and two women) and the audience heard from cross-examining witnesses that the 44-year-old nurse, who worked in a Dublin children's hospital, was suffering from a serious psychiatric illness at the time she carried out the three gruesome murders of her minor children. Judge Coffey described the case as "sad and tragic" but told the jury that the defendant did not know what she was doing during the murders and was unable to stop them. In the same vein, experts called to testify argued that the 44-year-old was mentally ill when she committed the murders.
The killer hid her psychological problems from her husband
During the trial, the defendant claimed that she was convinced that she would harm her children because of her psychological problems, problems she had first discussed with psychiatrists in late 2018. She continued to worry about her condition and believed it was getting worse, but she hid the problem from her husband and those around them. After the murders, Ireland's modern-day Medea revealed to police and psychiatrists that she had decided to kill her children three or four days before the day of the murders.
After the murders of the unfortunate children, the mother tried to end her life, without success. When her husband returned home he found her unconscious on a stretcher as she was taken to the hospital. There, the mother remained in a coma and when she recovered she said she wanted to have a time machine to bring back her three children.
The father of the three children told Ireland's national network RTE that he realised his wife was not mentally well on the day of the murders on January 24, 2020. "We had been together for almost 20 years. Dee loved children. I'm going to fight this (the murders) every day, I really will. There are tears, there is sadness, but I can't be tearful and sad every day. Nor can I be angry all the time," the 44-year-old nurse's husband said.
[/P]"Mummy stop," her 9-year-old son pleaded with Ireland's Medea
She murdered her three children, causing them to die by suffocation, 44-year-old Deirdre Morley herself confessed to police. "I want them back," Ireland's Medea told police, regretting the murders of her three minor children, 9-year-old Connor, 7-year-old Darragh and, just, 3-year-old Carla. She described in detail how she took the lives of her unfortunate children, saying she used duct tape, plastic bags and pillows to suffocate the three little angels. In fact, she did not hesitate to admit that one of her three children - 9-year-old Connor - fought with her and begged her to "mummy stop" as she covered his head in a plastic bag
The gruesome murders of the three children took place on January 24, 2020 in Newcastle, south Dublin and while their father Andrew McGinley was away on business in Cork. When he returned that evening he was horrified to discover the lifeless bodies of his children inside the house while an ambulance took his wife to hospital after she had attempted suicide following the murders.
As reported during the trial, the mother had attempted to murder the three children the previous evening as well. She placed morphine in the two boys' cereal and the analgesic Tylex in little Carla's drink. But the children didn't touch anything because they didn't like the taste. So the next morning, when 9-year-old Connor left for school, the killer took action. According to her statement to police, the mother had a heated argument with 7-year-old Darragh about how long she would watch a program on the iPad. According to the 44-year-old, she took duct tape and a plastic bag from the cabinet under the sink. The child was in the living room, she covered his mouth with the tape, put his head in the bag and placed a pillow over it. The 7-year-old tried to resist, when the mother realized that her son was no longer alive, she took him up to the bedroom and placed his lifeless body on the bed.
Little Carla was watching TV when her mother decided to kill her. She took a plastic bag and put it over her head and smothered her with a pillow. She carried her upstairs, but realized the child was still breathing. So the mother killer tried once again to take her daughter's life by causing her suffocating death. Then, always according to her statement to the police, she went to the school to pick up 9-year-old Connor. On the way back they stopped at a supermarket to buy the boy a sandwich. The mother was anxious on the drive to make sure she could kill the 9-year-old and end her life before her husband returned home.
Once mother and son arrived home, the boy went into the living room to watch TV. She got hold of duct tape, thicker than the one she used for her 7-year-old son. "I stood with the tape in my hands and asked him questions about the program he was watching," the 44-year-old told police officers. After 15 minutes she put the same tape in her mouth and told Connor to play a game. Meanwhile, she thought what he was about to do was "awful," but, if she let him live, what would she tell him about his other two brothers, who were already dead
So she put duct tape over the 9-year-old's mouth and then a plastic bag over his head and told him to try to talk. After putting the bag over Connor's head, he tied it tightly. "Mom, stop," the 9-year-old chanted in fear, but she replied, "I'm really sorry," as she tied the bag even tighter and pressed a pillow to the boy's head.
Three weeks after the trial that cleared the 44-year-old of serious mental illness, Deirdre Morley was admitted to a Dublin psychiatric hospital, where she is still being treated. Her husband said in a recent interview that "things will never be the same again" for him and the 44-year-old. "There is no future I suppose for me and D," Andrew McGinley told the Irish Mirror."
Source: Proto Thema
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