Andrew McGinley backs Deirdre Morley’s court challenge to scope of death inquest

Ms Morley, a paediatric nurse, was found not guilty by reason of insanity of murdering their young children, Conor, nine, Darragh, seven, and Carla, three, at their home in ­Newcastle, Co. Dublin, in 2020.

Her trial in 2021 heard that Ms Morley had a severe psychotic depressive illness. She has now asked the High Court to review the Dublin District Coroner’s refusal to hear evidence from her doctors and psychiatrists in an upcoming inquest.

Mr McGinley, who was unaware how serious his wife’s condition had become, said he had always hoped an inquest would bring answers – and changes in policy, which would allow families to be warned if their loved one posed a potential danger.

He told Extra.ie that decisions that were made during Ms Morley’s treatment must be looked at, alongside policies that governed communication with families.

"I believe that if some small changes were made, Conor, Darragh and Carla would still be alive. It’s as simple as that,’ he said. ‘If they are not going to be looked at, what’s the point of the inquest? I’m at the stage where I am seriously asking whether I will participate in my own children’s inquest – it does not bring them back to life.

"I had always hoped it would be something positive, which would help other people who may not know they actually need help.

"There will be people reading this article who don’t know that they need help, that their partner or spouse is not able to cope or who is even expressing concern about their children."

Andrew McGinley and his children.

He added: "I understand the need for patient confidentiality, but the system needs to protect families too." Mr McGinley said that on occasions, he wished he did not have to keep speaking about the death of his children, and that he could pack up and go to live on a beach in the Caribbean.

"But I could not live with myself if I did not keep trying to make a change," he said.

"The system is broken… it needs to change to save lives, to help patients, to help families."

He said Ms Morley had told the doctors treating her that she was unable to care for her children, that she did not want to go home and that she was suicidal.

"What did they do? They sent her home to her children, without telling me, or giving me any guidance or offer of support," he said.

 He recalled that a consultant told him there was "nothing to worry about", and that with "treatment and medication, everything will be fine".

"It wasn’t all fine," he said. "Clinicians were making decisions about me and my family without my input. I sometimes feel the clinicians treating Deirdre Morley played God with our lives."

The coroner, Dr Myra Cullinane, had ruled previously that evidence to be heard at the inquest about the state of Ms Morley’s mental health would be given by two forensic consultant psychiatrists, who had also given evidence at her criminal trial.

However, Dr Cullinane’s ruling was challenged in the coroner’s court last month, during a preliminary inquest hearing.

Ms Morley, who has taken on a new legal team, asked for the medics who treated her in the six months before the tragedy to be called. Her barrister, Fiona Gallagher, explained that the medical notes from the six months leading up to the children’s deaths were particularly relevant as they covered ‘the deterioration’ in Ms Morley’s mental state.

She said Ms Morley told doctors during this period she did not believe she was a risk to others but felt ‘unable to provide care to her children in her current state’. Ms Gallagher warned there would be ‘an evidential gap’ if the doctors who treated her client were not called as witnesses.

A barrister for consultant psychiatrist Dr Olivia Gibbons opposed the request. He told the inquest hearing that Ms Morley had accepted, during her criminal trial, that she had only formed the intention that led to the deaths of her children in January 2020, the month they were killed.

Ms Morley launched her formal challenge to the coroner’s decision this week, against Dr Cullinane, the Justice Minister, the State and the Attorney General.

Mr McGinley told Extra.ie: "I would have taken a judicial review myself over the scope of the inquest, but I simply could not afford it. It would take a significant six-figure sum. I fully support it and agree with it."

* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.