Andrew McGinley says he’s hoping to get answers in the coming weeks as to why his three children died at the hands of their mother, Deirdre Morley.
The Donegal dad of Conor (9), Darragh (7) and Carla (3), who is fighting for change in mental health policies, reveals that the HSE review of the case is due to be published soon.
The three children died in January 2020.
“That will hopefully give me answers or information that I don’t have in relation to why the children died,” Andrew told the Sunday World. “I know how they died, I know that, but you still want to understand why.
“And I don’t believe I fully understand why. I think there are a lot of gaps in what I know and what I can see from information at the trial etc. I need to understand that a bit better… why decisions were made.”
In May 2021, Deirdre Morley was found not guilty of the murder of their children at the family home in Newcastle, Co Dublin, by reason of insanity.
“I’ve always said had I known what a lot of the clinicians knew, when they knew it, then Conor, Darragh and Carla would be alive today,” Andrew says.
“It’s to understand why that information wasn’t shared or why people thought it was better not to have family inclusion.
“That’s something I’m still campaigning for with the HSE and the Minister for Mental Health, to make changes like that.
“In relation to patient confidentiality, I firmly believe patient confidentiality should have been broken in our case, but obviously it wasn’t broken, so it’s to get a better understanding of that. The point in law is that confidentiality can be breached if the clinicians believe that the patient is a danger to themselves or to others.”
Andrew reveals that his biggest fear today is waking up to the news that another child has died at the hands of a mentally ill parent.
“I actually dread looking at the headlines in the morning in case there has been another tragedy similar to ours,” he says.
“There was one in the US the week before last and that hit me like a brick. It brings it all back. It was very similar circumstances. I believe the man in question went out to collect a takeaway and was only gone from the house for about half-an-hour. Would he have left if he thought there was any danger? No!
“I don’t know his circumstances, but certainly nobody had given me any indication, and I didn’t feel there was any indication [that his wife posed a threat]. I would never have left the kids if I thought there was any danger.”
