Chada inquest: Murdered boys ‘seemed to be at peace’

The jury at an inquest into the deaths of young brothers Eoghan and Ruairí Chada in Co Mayo last year has returned verdicts of unlawful killing.

The inquest in Castlebar heard the brothers died by strangulation at the hands of their father Sanjeev Chada at Skehanagh Lower, Balintubber on July 29th, 2013.

Chada (44) was sentenced to life imprisonment on October 7th after admitting to what the Central Criminal Court heard was a crime fuelled by mounting gambling debts.

Coroner for south Mayo John O’Dwyer read from a deposition from pathologist Khalid Jabbar, who carried out postmortems on both boys.

Mr O’Dwyer said Mr Jabbar was not available as he is currently working in Saudi Arabia.

Dr Jabbar found that Eoghan (10), died of ligature strangulation secondary to blunt force trauma to the head. Ruairi (five) died of ligature strangulation.

Mr O’Dwyer told the jury he believed there was only one verdict they could consider, in view of Sanjeev Chada’s conviction for murder and that was one of unlawful death.

The jury of five men and one woman retired shortly after 12.25pm to consider their verdict and they returned 20 minutes later.

Reading a short statement to the court, the boys’ mother Kathleen thanked members of the Garda, her family and friends and all the wider community who had been there for her “in so many ways”.

“To say I have been held over the last 16 months would be an understatement,” she said.

The coroner said he understood Ms Chada was keeping her married name out of deference and respect to her two boys.

Sanjeev Chada, of Ballinkillen, Bagenalstown, Co Carlow, pleaded guilty last month to killing his two sons at Skehanagh Lower, Ballintubber, Co Mayo.

He drove the boys from their home in Carlow to Co Mayo, where he strangled them before writing in a note: “I suppose we will always be together now in some way.”

Mr O’Dwyer opened the inquest shortly after 10.30am before a jury of five men and one woman.

Depositions of some 16 witnesses were read, some of them by the witnesses themselves and others by Superintendent Joe McKenna of Westport Garda station.

The inquest heard that Mandy Semple from Newport, Co Mayo, witnessed the Ford Focus driven by Mr Chada crash into a wall as she drove to Murrisk at about 3.15pm on July 29th.

She said her first thought was that the brakes had failed on the car.

Ms Semple, who was first on the scene, said she tried to open the driver’s door but couldn’t. She saw the person driving the car was a man and that he had a pony tail and that his head was buried in the airbag.

Another driver pulled up and opened the passenger door and leaned into the car. The driver was rocking backwards and forwards with his head in his hands.

The man, whom she now knew to be called Sean Foy, came around to the driver’s side and opened the driver’s door with difficulty.

Another man came over to them from the house across the road and a woman was standing near the scene.

Ms Semple made two phone calls to the emergency services at 3.21pm and 3.22pm but told the other people present she could not get through because she had no reception.

One of the men on the scene opened the boot of the car and said ‘Oh my God’, or words to that effect. The inquest heard that the boot of the car was opened by Robert Service from Co Down, who came upon the scene with his son-in-law David Titterington. They had been in Westport on holidays.

Ms Semple said she could sense horror the voice of the man who opened the bood and she looked into the boot of the car and saw the two boys.

“The two little boys appeared lifeless and I just thought they were dead.”

Mr Service, who was not present at the inquest, said in his deposition that when he discovered the bodies of the two boys he did not touch them, but they both appeared lifeless to him.

The inquest heard that Mr Chada had a rope in his hand after the witnesses opened the door of the car and he appeared to be trying to choke himself.

The boys’ mother Kathleen Chada is present for the inquest.

Answering questions from Ms Chada’s solicitor, Mr Foy said that when he saw the bodies of the two boys in the boot they were lying on their sides with their backs to him.

“They seemed to be at peace,” he said.

The inquest heard that Marine Ryan, who came upon the scene, managed to contact Westport Garda station on her mobile phone.

Garda Brian Kilkelly of Westport station told the inquest that when he arrived at the scene he observed the green Ford Focus embedded in a stone wall opposite a minor road at a T-junction.

He said that when he opened the boot of the car he discovered the bodies of the two boys fully clothed in the car and it appeared they had been dead for some time.

The older boy was wearing a dark-coloured top with an emblem on it and navy tracksuit bottoms with a thin, sky-blue stripe on the side. He was also wearing gold runners.

The younger boy, who was nearest to the boot lid in the open position, was facing his brother and wearing white runners with a black/grey stripe, a white jersey top and blue-grey tracksuit bottoms with a thick, bright-coloured stripe.

The driver, who identified himself as Sanj Chada, gave the garda the boys’ details and Garda Kilkelly recorded the answers to questions he asked at the scene, he said.

Mr Chada told him that what had happened occured 10km outside Castlebar near Abbey.

“You can see what I did, with the ropes,” Mr Chada told him.

“Why did you do it?” Garda Kilkelly asked him.

“I love them so much,” Mr Chada said.

Mr Chada told the garda it had happened because of “money”.

When asked what he meant, Mr Chada said: “I ruined everything.”

Garda Kilkelly asked him: “How did you do this to your children?”

“I don’t know,” Chada replied.

The garda established his wife’s name, that he had no other children and that he had driven from Bagenalstown the night before. He had slept overnight in the car with “the kids”, the garda noted at the time.

“What time did this happen at?” he asked Chada, who said it had happened at 5am approximately.

“Was it bright?” Garda Kilkelly asked. “Not quite,” was the reply.

Dr Adam Wolverson of Lincoln, England, a consultant in intensive care at Lincoln County Hospital, came upon the scene in his car and told the garda who stopped the car that he was a doctor. He asked the Garda if he wanted him to stop and the garda indicated yes.

The doctor said the driver did not have any external injuries. He was conscious, breathing and responding normally to questions but only gave ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers.

“He was very quiet, did not look at me, engage with me, ask my any questions and only gave me yes and no answers.

“He did not smell of alcohol.”

The garda asked Dr Wolverson if he would mind checking that the children were dead.

The garda opened the boot and asked that the doctor not touch anything he did not need to touch.

In his deposition, read to the inquest, Dr Wolverson said he saw the bodies of the two children, one older and one younger. They were laid facing each other.

The younger of the two was facing forwards into the boot on his left side. The older boy was facing out and on his right side.

Dr Wolverson said it struck him “almost immediately” that the boys had not died in the accident and also that he did not see any blood.

“In my mind they looked like they were dead longer than what I had expected within the timeframe of the accident.”

Paramedics at the scene found no signs of life in either boy. Dr Wolverson pronounced both children dead at 3.45pm.

He said if there had been any chance they could have been resuscitated he would have taken them out immediately. But it appeared they had been dead for hours rather than minutes.

Det Insp Tom Fitzmaurice of Swinford Garda station told the inquest he later received a direction to charge Sanjeev Chada with two counts of murder.

The inquest also heard details of the movements of Sanjeev Chada before the crash. Gardaí gave evidence that he bought a punnet of strawberries in Tesco, Carlow on Sunday evening July 28th before travelling to Balintubber.

He was seen on CCTV at a service station in Balintubber on Monday July 29th paying for €15 worth of petrol and buying a cup of coffee or tea.

Supt McKenna extended condolences and “deepest sympathies” to Ms Chada on behalf of An Garda Síochána.

Gerry Tolster, chairman of the jury, also extended sympathies to Ms Chada.