In a horrifying crime, a British mother strangled her three children while suffering from depression, despite one of her despairing children pleading with her to stop and asking what she was doing and why. The father, Andrew McGinley, revealed that he cannot stop hearing the last words of his son Conor, who screamed for his mother to stop killing him as she used a bag and tape to strangle him.
He stated that his 44-year-old wife, Deirdre Morley, killed their children—Conor (9 years old), Darragh (7 years old), and Carla (3 years old)—in their home in Dublin in January 2020. He added that there is "no future" for him with Morley, as she was acquitted of murder due to being found insane by the court, and was committed to a mental hospital.
The court revealed that the mother wished to die with her children, as she attempted to drug them before strangling them. The night before the tragedy, she mixed morphine into the boys' breakfast cereals and Carla's bottle, but they spat it out. The next day, she first killed Darragh, who was at home sick and had not gone to school. During her trial, she said she immediately regretted killing Darragh and wanted to stop but felt she could not leave any of her children behind.
After strangling Darragh and Carla with tape and plastic bags, she brought Conor home from school. As he was watching a children's program in a play tent inside the house, she approached him with a bag and tape. She explained that when she put the bag over his head, he asked her, "Stop, Mommy, what are you doing?," to which she responded, “I’m sorry, Conor.”
After committing the crime, Morley decided to take her own life and drove her car after consuming alcohol and medications, crashing the vehicle at a roundabout. A driver took her home and called an ambulance out of concern for her, coinciding with her husband’s return from a work trip, during which he found the bodies of their three children. A note was found warning not to go upstairs, stating, "I’m sorry."
According to the British newspaper "Daily Mail," the mother could potentially be released after only five years if doctors declare her to be mentally fit. For her part, the mother, who worked as a nurse, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity during her trial at Dublin's Central Criminal Court, a view supported by two psychiatrists, one for the defense and the other for the prosecution.
The court heard that Morley suffered from severe psychotic depression, as she experienced type two bipolar affective disorder, a known mental illness, as reported by Al Arabiya news site. She had previously suffered a breakdown in July 2019 and spent four weeks in a psychiatric hospital. The tragic murders took place on January 24, 2020, when Morley entered a state of delusion and psychosis.
