Another community in Ireland was left devastated by the tragic deaths of family members in recent days.
Gardaí are treating the death of Krzysztof Daczkowski (50) and his daughter Julia Daczkowsa (5) in the Finglas area of north Dublin last weekend as a suspected murder-suicide. Their bodies were found by the girl’s mother last Saturday.
While the specifics of the case are not yet clear, whenever such tragic events occur one question is often asked: could it have been prevented?
Few people can understand the horror of your spouse killing your children. Andrew McGinley and Úna Butler are two of them.
RM Block
Both believe their children would still be alive today if they had been more involved in their respective partners’ treatment for mental ill health.
In 2021, Mr McGinley’s wife Deirdre Morley, a paediatric nurse, was found not guilty by reason of insanity of murdering their three children Conor (9), Darragh (7) and Carla (3) at the family home in Newcastle, west Dublin, on January 24th, 2020.
She had been receiving treatment for mental illness at the time and attempted to take her own life after she killed her children. Mr McGinley said he was not kept informed about the extent of his wife’s illness.
Ms Morley was diagnosed with a severe psychotic depressive illness. Her trial heard she had hidden her condition from her husband and others.
An inquest into the deaths of their children is due to take place in Dublin in coming weeks.
Through medical records released to him in July ahead of the inquest, Mr McGinley said he found out Ms Morley had spoken to doctors about “not wanting to be around her children, not feeling safe with her children”.
Mr McGinley said if he had been kept better informed about his wife’s treatment, then he believed “my children would be alive today”.
He said he could not comprehend how a spouse would not be kept informed about their partner’s condition if there was any possible risk to their children.
“I struggle to understand why I was not included ... It makes no sense,” Mr McGinley said.
“I guarantee you there will be people reading your article and their partner, their spouse, could be in treatment for their mental health and they would not know it. They would not know what discussions are being had about their children.”
Mr McGinley said the welfare of Conor, Darragh and Carla should have superseded the right of patient confidentiality.
[ Changes needed in treatment of parents with mental health issues, says Una ButlerOpens in new window ]
Under Medical Council guidelines, a clinician can disclose information about a patient if they are deemed to be a “serious risk of harm” to themselves or others.
“It’s too late at that stage, isn’t it?” Úna Butler said.
Her husband John took his own life after he killed their daughters, Ella (2) and Zoe (6), in the family home in Ballycotton, Co Cork, on November 16th, 2010.
He had been receiving treatment for mental ill health before his death, but Ms Butler didn’t know the extent of his issues.
What would be different if she had been better informed about her husband’s treatment?
“My children would be alive,” she said.
“Where is the care for the children? They’re the innocent victims in all of this.”
Ms Butler said doctors treating her husband would have “gained greater insight into his behaviours” if they had better involved her in his care.
She believes the new Mental Health Act, which is making its way through the Oireachtas, should put family members’ rights to be more involved in a loved one’s care on a statutory footing.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said Minister for Mental Health Mary Butler “supports the involvement of families in an individual’s mental health treatment” but an individual’s consent is “central to this process”.
“It is up to the individual to decide the type of information they wish for a doctor or service to disclose to their family members.”
The spokeswoman said that while patient confidentiality was “a fundamental principle of medical ethics”, there are some circumstances “where it may be necessary to disclose information” such as when there is a risk to the person or others.
“This course of action has long been available to doctors. However, it is important to acknowledge that predicting and assessing risk is not always straightforward.”
The spokeswoman added that family involvement “with the consent of the person concerned” was reflected in the Mental Health Bill 2024, which is due to be enacted by the end of this year.
Mr McGinley said people in his position were often forced to wait years for an inquest or “dragged” through the courts. Both Mr McGinley and Ms Morley have taken legal actions against medical professionals and the HSE.
Ms Morley was committed to the Central Mental Hospital in Dublin. Earlier this year it emerged she was at times granted day leave.
Mr McGinley said he has received little communication regarding these arrangements and feared running into her by accident.
“I could bump into Deirdre Morley tomorrow, and I honestly don’t know how that would go for either of us,” he said.
“Quite honestly, as a woman that I loved up until the 24th of January, 2020, I now hate the fact that I have to breathe the same air as her. That’s not a nice thing to say, but that’s how I’ve been left feeling.”
Lack of research on murder-suicides in Ireland
There have been at least 50 murder-suicides in Ireland since 2004, when the National Suicide Research Foundation (NSRF) began tracking such deaths. There are no official statistics and information is not always readily available so this figure could be an underestimation.
Most of the 50 cases involved filicide – where the person killed their own child or children – while others were familicide, where an individual killed multiple close family members, followed by suicide.
Professor Ella Arensman, the NSRF’s chief scientist, said that it was crucial that in-depth research was carried out to better understand why these incidents happened and to prevent future tragedies.
“There is clearly a research gap in this area,” Ms Arensman said. “The escalation to murder-suicide is complex with multiple factors.”
Ms Arensman, who is also the head of UCC’s School of Public Health, said there were typically two or three cases of murder-suicide in Ireland a year. As they are “relatively rare”, an in-depth study would need to take place over a prolonged period such as 10 years.
“Otherwise, you don’t have the opportunity to detect specific patterns,” she said.
Such research could involve interviewing the perpetrator’s family members, friends and co-workers as well as gardaí, healthcare professionals and the coroner in question.
Ms Arensman said researchers have gained valuable insights from examining certain individual cases, but a broader, long-term project was required to gain insights that could inform future policy in this area.
While there is a dearth of research in this area in Ireland and abroad, some insights have been garnered from international studies.
Ms Arensman said there was a “misconception” that murder-suicide cases were “more aligned to homicide than suicide”, adding, “this is not the case”.
“There are so many homicide cases where the perpetrator is not undertaking suicide, or not even conveying that risk of suicide ... That has been an important learning,” she said.
“Comparing multiple sources of information in a systematic way, we have undertaken that in terms of individual cases of suicide. We refer to that as the psychological autopsy approach, but we haven’t been able to obtain the funding to conduct this systematic approach to murder-suicide cases.”
Whether or not such research will ever be carried out in Ireland, Mr McGinley and Ms Butler still await answers that may never come.
The upcoming inquest into his children’s deaths may give him some new information but not much else, Mr McGinley said.
“What am I going to get out of the inquest? Nothing,” he said.
“The inquest won’t bring Conor, Darragh or Carla back, but what I do hope is that there will be improved patient care, patient treatment and patient diagnosis.
“What I’m trying to do is help protect children in the future.”
If you or someone you know needs someone to talk to, contact the Samaritans on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org
