The father of murdered tot Santina Cauley has insisted he’s “not a dangerous person” - after being spared jail over attacking her killer.
In his only interview since receiving a two-year suspended sentence for assaulting child killer Karen Harrington last week - Michael Cauley admitted that he did get a brief “release” from it, but says in the end: “I shouldn’t have taken the law into my own hands.”
Mr Cauley, whose tragic daughter Santina, two, was brutally murdered by Harrington in 2019, bumped into the killer on a bus in Cork City, while she was on bail on the evening of January 26, 2021.
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In what he now calls “an out of the blue moment of madness,” Michael attacked Harrington on the bus - picking her up and throwing her to the ground, before kicking her a number of times.
Last week a judge spared Michael a jail sentence - sentencing him instead to two years suspended, but calling him a “very violent man” due to his past convictions for assault.
But speaking exclusively to us today, Michael insisted he’s not a dangerous person - and his past convictions occurred when he was a teenager.
“I was a teenager getting into trouble when those other offences occurred. It was with a couple of men but it’s sorted now. I’m not a dangerous person. I’m not violent,” the grieving father insisted.
Describing for the first time in detail how he came to attack Harrington on the bus, Michael says something just took over him when he saw his daughter’s killer on bail - and he thought of Santina in that moment.
“I just looked at her and I just thought, look at all the bulls*** you’re telling guards and getting out on bail and me thinking of my daughter and my children and my family suffering.
“You destroyed my family’s life. Things like that were going through my head. I just went for her. I picked her up, threw her onto the floor and gave her a few kicks. That was it,” he said. It was totally out of the blue. A moment of madness.”
But Michael insists what happened in that moment is not a reflection on who he is - and he admits that although what he did initially gave him some release - he deeply regrets his actions that day.
“I thought maybe a few days afterwards that I got a bit of a release from it, but it didn’t help my grieving in the end. I regret attacking her.
“The only way I can put it is yeah I apologise for hitting her on a bus but I will never, ever forgive her for what she did to my daughter. I shouldn’t have taken the law into my own hands and I wouldn’t have. Seeing that person who murdered your child, like I hadn’t seen Karen since that,” he said.
Michael says he wasn’t thinking straight when he saw Harrington on the bus - and he says that although his anger got the better of him, he didn’t lash out as much as perhaps some others would.
“I believe that a lot of people would have done it. You can read a lot of the comments on social media and there’s a lot of people who would probably do worse.
“But I don’t believe in that. I wasn’t in the right state of mind when I met Karen on the bus,” he said.
The devastated dad, who will mark Santina’s third anniversary next month, says he immediately rang gardai after the attack, and offered to plead guilty at the earliest opportunity.
“I did ring the guards straight afterwards as well. I did go to them about it,” he said.
But Michael says the attack would never have occurred had a judge agreed with gardai’s concerns about granting Karen Harrington bail as the long wait for the trial continued - something he believes should never have happened.
“I believe she should have been locked up from day one. She should never have gotten bail. She should have been put on remand. She murdered my daughter,” Michael said.
“There was so much going on when it happened too. I had got news from the guards that the case was cancelled again for the third time.
“We weren’t able to name Santina because of an issue with the Children’s Act. And we were dealing with a pandemic. We were years waiting and we were in the height of it when I randomly bumped into Karen on the bus.
“There was nothing going through my head in that moment other than she murdered my daughter.”
Michael believes that suspected child killers shouldn’t be granted bail - and should remain on remand in prison before they are convicted.
“I think the pain that victims go through is too much, it’s too much. I think this bail carry on has to stop for child killers.
“It has to stop. I wish that the pain for victims was brought into some consideration,” he said. People who murder children should not be given bail, they should not be out on the streets.
“Someone can kill your whole family and yet they can walk the streets the next day. It’s not fair on the victim.”
The heartbroken dad says he fully expected to be jailed over his attack on Harrington - but he says he is extremely grateful to the judge for giving him a second chance.
“I never doubted that the judge would have locked me up. It’s just that he took things into consideration,” Michael said.
“It was a relief not to be jailed and I am very thankful to the judge for that. There’s no doubt he would have locked me up only for the circumstances of what happened to my daughter and the fact that I’m now getting help from counselors and that I’m continuing to see people,” he said.
“I want to continue to work with my mental health now and get the support that I’m getting. It’s helping me to get on with my life.”
Last week Judge Olann Kelleher was told how Harrington’s victim impact statement strayed well beyond the scope of the assault and he was not sure of its relevance.
Michael’s solicitor Frank Buttimer told the court that he had very strong concerns about Ms Harrington’s statement given that it strayed from the point of such a statement.
Judge Kelleher said that having read the statement he found Harrington had elaborated on matters that were not relevant to the case.
Speaking today, Michael says he did not read the statement, though he was offered - but he did get an overall idea of some of what was said in it.
Vile Harrington used the statement as an opportunity to try and once again bring up the facts of her case - and to challenge her murder conviction.
“It was just a load of rubbish and nonsense,” Michael said. "She shouldn’t have a right to speak about Santina on anything now, unless she is going to admit what she did to her. There was no talk in her statement about what happened on the bus.
“She was trying to turn things around and put what happened to Santina out of the equation and make herself out to be a victim. She should have been more sensible.”
Evil Harrington, who has never admitted to the murder, is now appealing her conviction, it has emerged.
And for Michael, the news has come as another devastating blow.
“She’s in for an appeal now. I don’t agree with it. It brings it all back up again. People try to move forward but they can’t,” he said.
“I’m very frustrated now about it. But there’s nothing we can do but go through the motions of it. Obviously I hope she isn’t granted it. It’s too dangerous for any child for her to be back out on the streets.”
Last month Harrington, 37, was jailed for life after a jury convicted her of the brutal murder of Santina Cauley at a Cork City apartment on July 5, 2019.
The tragic toddler received 53 injuries during a horrific assault inflicted by Harrington hours after her then partner Michael Cauley, the child’s father, had left the apartment following a verbal row.
CCTV evidence would later back-up Michael’s version of events that he was out in Cork city at the time the murder occurred - and later returned to the apartment where he made the horrific discovery.
In a harrowing victim impact statement read out during Harrington’s murder trial, Michael spoke about that tragic moment.
“Santina was brutally murdered. The worst thing was finding her disfigured body under a blanket. I will be haunted by this horror for the remainder of my life,” he said.
“This is beyond words. I have no words. The trial was a difficult process, having to sit and listen to the graphic details of what happened to Santina - but a necessary one,” he added.
Michael, who was not paid for this or any interview with us, wanted to publicly insist that he has no interest in receiving money from anyone - be it the media or the State.
“People think that I am selling stories. If I could put out there that I want no benefit from the state, from newspapers, from radio stations from no one.
“I am very happy with the justice we got for Santina. I want nothing off of anyone,” he said.
However, he said that if he did receive money, he would give it to Cork University Hospital, where Santina was cared for.
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