A mother tried to poison her three children the day before she suffocated them at their family home, a murder trial has heard.
Deirdre Morley, from Newcastle, Co Dublin, allegedly murdered her three kids using tape and plastic bags to suffocate them on January 24, 2020, the Irish Mirror reports.
Two of the children were killed in their play tent, the jury at the Central Criminal Court heard.
In what was described by the prosecution as “desperately sad case”, 44-year-old Morley had failed in her attempt the previous day to poison her sons Conor McGinley, nine, Darragh McGinley, seven, and her daughter Carla McGinley, three.
The accused was said to be suffering from a mental disorder when she caused the deaths of her three children, believing it was in their best interests to take their lives and that they should go together, the court heard.
Morley, a nurse, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
The children’s bodies were discovered at the family home just before 8pm on January 24.
In her opening address, prosecuting counsel Anne-Marie Lawlor SC said it was for the prosecution to prove that Ms Morley did not just kill her three children but had the capacity to intend to do so.
Ms Lawlor said the jury’s primary concern would be the accused’s mental state on January 24, when these deaths occurred and there was no issue in the case as to what happened to the children and how they died.
“The vast bulk of the evidence will come from Ms Morley’s mouth, when she was interviewed on three occasions by gardai and went into detail as to what occurred,” she said.
Addressing the jury, Ms Lawlor said that a very significant part of the evidence came from the consultant psychiatrists concerning Ms Morley’s mental health and how the events had occurred.
Detective Sergeant Dara Kenny would give evidence to the jury as to what had occurred that day, she said.
Outlining the facts of the case, Ms Lawlor said that Ms Morley was married to Andrew McGinley and they had three children.
There was no question but that the children were well cared for and loved by their parents, she said, adding that there was also no issue regarding the parenting.
Detailing the evidence that would be heard, Ms Lawlor said that the couple had a good marriage but it had been challenged in the year prior to the children’s deaths.
Ms Morley’s health had deteriorated very significantly and she suffered a breakdown in July 2019, which resulted in her attaining psychiatric care at St Patrick’s Hospital in Dublin.
Ms Lawlor said the evidence will be that the accused was dealing with a mental health professional until January 2020.
Her family and extended family were very involved in caring for her and understood that her mental health was improving.
“In the days before the children’s deaths, there was a belief that her mental health had improved and psychiatrists will assist you in that was not the case,” she indicated.
On the evening prior to the killings, Ms Lawlor said that Mr McGinley travelled to Cork for work as he understood that there was no difficulty in the family home at the time.
Ms Morley, who was very qualified in her field of nursing, attempted to take the lives of her children on the evening of January 23 by administering medicine to them in their food, she said.
The prosecution barrister went on to tell the court that the jury would hear considerable detail from Ms Morley’s interviews with gardai as to how she had killed her children on January 24, which she described as distressing.
“Nobody is saying that the physical acts which took the lives of the children did not occur,” she said.
There will be evidence, Ms Lawlor said, from consultants psychiatrists Dr Mary Davoren and Dr Brenda Wright who prepared reports on behalf of the prosecution and defence and concluded that Ms Morley suffered from a mental disorder.
“They give different details in regards to that,” she said.
Dr Davoren will give evidence that the accused suffered from recurrent depressive disorder and Dr Wright will say that she had bipolar affective disorder, said the barrister.
“You will hear varying accounts as to whether Ms Morley knew what she did was wrong,” she remarked.
Ms Lawlor said the evidence from both psychiatrists would be that Ms Morley could not imagine that her children would ever live healthy lives and she believed their best interests were served by taking their lives.
“She couldn’t generate an alternative other than taking the lives of her children and they had to go together,” she said.
“This is a desperately sad case especially for the Morley and McGinley families.”
Giving evidence today, Detective Sergeant Dara Kenny said that on January 22, Ms Morley had done Google searches for “a noose” and the N7 flyover between Newcastle and Rathcoole. On January 23, she purchased a rope from a hardware shop.
The accused had attempted to take the children’s lives on the evening of January 23 but was unsuccessful.
She put morphine in the two boys’ cereal and a Tylex tablet, containing paracetamol and codeine, in her daughter’s drink. However, the boys spat out the cereal and none of the children were harmed.
The next day she kept her younger children home from creche and school and suffocated them both before bringing them to her bedroom, he said.
She then collected her oldest child Conor from school at 1.50pm and suffocated him in a play-tent downstairs while he was watching a movie.
A note, written by Ms Morley, was found in the house and said: “Don’t go into the front room or upstairs, phone 911, I’m so sorry.”
A second note beside her eldest son’s body said she could see no future with “disturbance and mental illness”. She said she had to take the children with her and was broken and could not live with herself. She said she was “so sorry”.
The trial continues this afternoon before Mr Justice Paul Coffey and a jury of ten men and two women. It is expected to last three days.