Campaigners whose partners killed their children are warning that more tragedies will happen if the Mental Health Act is not amended.
The message has been made by Andrew McGinley, whose wife killed their three children in 2020, and Una Butler, whose husband killed their two kids and himself in 2010.
Both have spoken out before proposed amendments to the Mental Health Act are due to reach the Oireachtas.
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Andrew, 54, and 50-year-old Una believe that their families’ devastating tragedies would not have happened and their children would still be alive if they had each been included in their spouses’ mental health treatment.
They are campaigning for the specific Mental Health Act amendment of family inclusion in the same week that Rebecca Saunders announced that she is to exhume the remains of her daughter Clarissa, who was murdered by her father.
Rebecca was 26 when her husband Martin McCarthy, 50, drowned their daughter and then killed himself in Cork in 2013. They were then buried together. Una said: “I don’t know the circumstances of Rebecca’s family, but I know that families should be included in the mental health treatment of patients.
“I believe, and I know Andrew does too, that my husband and children would still be alive and Andrew’s children would still be alive if family inclusion was part of the Mental Health Act.
“We both fear that if the Act is not amended and if family inclusion is not part of it, then there will be more murder-suicides.”
Andrew’s wife Deirdre was 43 when she killed their children Conor, nine, Darragh, seven, and three-year-old Carla at their home in Dublin in January 2020.
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Deirdre, of Parson’s Court in Newcastle, Co Dublin, was alleged to have suffocated the children to death, but was ruled by the Central Criminal Court in May 2021 to be not guilty of murder by reason of insanity and sent to the Central Mental Hospital.
Una’s husband John was 42 when he killed their children Zoe, six, and two-year-old Ella in November 2010 at their home in Cork before dousing himself in petrol and crashing his car to kill himself.
Una said: “You don’t ever recover or get over what has happened. The very awful thing about it all is that it could’ve been prevented, had I been involved.
“I’m just getting by as much as I can, trying to keep busy, but you don’t ever get over something like that.
“It’s the cruellest thing on earth, especially when it could’ve been prevented. That’s why the Act needs to be changed, to have family members included.
“Andrew believes that his children would be alive today if he had been included and I believe 100% that it was preventable.”
Heartbreaking figures collated by Una show that 53 children were killed by a parent in Ireland in the years from 2000 to 2020 and that 37 of the killings were by parents who were receiving psychiatric care for mental health issues.
Una said: “I researched these stats and found that, of all the children’s deaths, more than half of the perpetrators – the mother or father – were in contact with psychiatric services. I know that it will happen again if changes are not made and that’s why I am campaigning for changes to the Mental Health Act to involve a family member in the treatment.
“Patient confidentiality does not have to be broken. Family involvement should be mandatory. Ultimately, it is for the welfare of children.”
Andrew added: “There is an opportunity with the proposed amendments to the Mental Health Act coming before the Oireachtas soon.
“Since 2015, the Mental Health Act amendments, primarily based on the 165 recommendations of a 2015 expert group review of the Act, still sit in limbo.
“They haven’t been voted on yet, so there is still an opportunity for them to be more patient-centric.
“At the moment, they appear to be an administrative checklist.
“Family inclusion has been recommended – but that is not enough. It should be made law.”
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