'Daddy don't do it': Father pleads guilty to attempted murder of children

A child told his father “Daddy we can get you help, just don’t do it” as the man attempted to murder him and his three siblings, the Central Criminal Court heard on Monday.

The man pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of his four young children and will be sentenced next week.

The father, who cannot be named, previously admitted to four counts of attempted murder at his family home in the south-east of the country on June 3rd, 2016. The man’s relationship with his wife had broken down and there had been “unhappy differences” between them which seemed to affect him badly.

The man, who has a history of depression, attempted to strangle two of his children and left them when he thought they were dead before moving onto the other two children in the next bedroom.

He told gardai he was texting his wife and she had sent him a text message saying it was “time to stop crying” and to tell the children “what he wanted”.

At Monday’s sentence hearing Detective Garda Fergus O’Brien summarised the facts of the case.

The man was minding his four children as his wife was going out for the night. The defendant went to his father’s house at 7.20pm saying: “I hurt the kids, I’ve done something stupid to the kids.” The grandfather then went to his son’s house and saw two of the children in a “panicked state” in the driveway. He found the other two children on their backs in the bedroom, one was crying and the other unconscious. He managed to revive one of the children.

Purple faces

Det Garda O’Brien agreed that two of the children’s faces were purple and their eyes were blood-shot. They were gasping for air and had red marks on their necks. The other two children were treated with oxygen by paramedics and one of these was critical.

The father told gardai he was planning on killing himself when he found out his wife was going on a date. “I thought if I killed them they wouldn’t be upset,” he said. The man said when he went to strangle two of his children, they looked at him and asked him what he was doing.

Det Garda O’Brien said the man told gardai he was trying to kill his children saying, “I didn’t mean to do it, I thought it would make them happier.”

He said he started tickling two of his children and his hands began to “strangle” them . “I kept going until they were dead and I kissed both of them of the foreheads,” he said.

Two other children were playing Xbox in their bedroom, the man told gardaí. He grabbed two of them “at once” and put his hand up against them at the same time. The man said to them that it was their mammy’s fault and one replied: “Daddy we can get you help just don’t do it.”

The court heard he did not have the energy to “hold any longer” on their necks and he left them go.

When asked by gardaí if he was reckless taking his medication, he said he had been without tablets for a few days. A psychiatric report said the children had suffered severe trauma. Defence counsel Patrick Gageby SC said his client got depression in 2009 and got help in a local hospital.

Apology

In a victim impact statement the mother told the court she will never forget receiving a “horrible voicemail” from her eldest child screaming. She said the children “were the bravest children one could ever meet” and “know their daddy did wrong. They know you have to say sorry when you do wrong and one has to be punished.”

The woman said she was happy er ex-husband had not put her through a trial. “I’m ready to move on, stop looking over my shoulder, stop living in fear,” she said.

Mr Gageby then read a letter of apology on behalf of his client in which he said: “Anything I say or do will not change what I’ve done or make it better, I want you to know how much I regret it and how sorry I am for putting my four beautiful children through this.”

Mr Justice Michael White remanded the man in custody until October 17th.

[ Pieta House ]