Garda in tears as she recalls finding children dead in bed

A female garda broke down in the witness box at the Cavan inquest into the murders of Clodagh Hawe and her three sons as she recalled finding the bodies of the two eldest children in their beds upstairs.

The first day of the inquest into the deaths of Clodagh (39) and her sons Liam (13), Niall (11) and Ryan (6) by their father Alan Hawe (40) was dominated by harrowing testimony and emotional scenes at Cavan Courthouse.

Hawe, a local school vice-principal, took his own life after murdering his wife and three children at their home near Ballyjamesduff in Co Cavan. The five bodies were discovered by gardaí on the morning of August 29th, 2016.

Mary Coll, Clodagh’s mother, had alerted gardaí after finding a note handwritten by Alan Hawe stuck inside the back door that said: “Please do not come in – please call the gardaí.”

Coroner Dr Mary Flanagan warned a jury of six women and one man at the outset that the inquest would be "particularly emotive".

Note on door

Ms Coll, the first witness, teared up as she was sworn in. She told the inquest that when she saw the note on the door, she went to the next-door neighbour and told her: “I think Alan has done something terrible, that Alan had killed them all.”

The inquest heard Clodagh Hawe was discovered lying face down on a couch in the downstairs living room with a pool of blood around her and a small axe and knife on the floor beside the couch.

Alan Hawe’s body was found in the front hall downstairs, while the bodies of his sons, all with their throats cut, were discovered upstairs in their own beds. A knife was found on a pillow next to Ryan’s body.

Garda Aisling Walsh, the second person into the house that morning, became visibly upset when she described finding Liam and Niall with throat injuries in their beds upstairs.

“Having checked both children, there were no signs of life,” she said through tears after collecting herself. “They had their duvets on them.”

Three pages

A note and an envelope containing three pages in Alan Hawe’s handing writing – some of which were bloodstained – were found on the kitchen table. The contents of the notes were not read in court.

Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis testified that Hawe may have killed his wife and eldest son Liam first to make "the possibility of a physical challenge less likely".

He said he found it “very difficult to believe that it’s entirely coincidental” that the windpipes of each of the children were severed, rendering “all three of them unable to make a sound”.

The inquest continues.