A father who stabbed his wife and two children to death after his marriage had collapsed was jailed for life at the Central Criminal Court yesterday.
Gregory Fox (36) attacked his wife Debbie (30) with a broken beer bottle, a knife and a hurley at their home in the village of Castledaly because he thought she was having an affair.
Fox then went into his nine-year-old son Trevor's bedroom and stabbed him 31 times with a knife before moving to the bedroom of Cillian (7) and stabbing him 16 times. He then slashed his own wrist.
After his arrest in July 2001, Fox told gardaí he killed the children because he didn't want them to wake to find their mother dead.
Fox, with an address at Kilcleagh, Castledaly, Co Westmeath, pleaded guilty to the three murders yesterday and was sentenced by Mr Justice Paul Carney to three life terms, to be served concurrently.
In a written statement read out in court by defence counsel Mr Patrick Gageby, Fox said he took full responsibility for the killings and apologised to his and Debbie's families.
"I feel I have caused enough pain to my family and my wife's family and I do not wish to put everyone through the ordeal of a trial," he said.
"I never set out with the intention of harming my wife or children, but the cataclysmic effect of the sudden collapse of my relationship with my wife brought on events and acts on my part which I never thought I would be capable of."
He showed no emotion as his sentence was handed down.
Earlier, the court heard Fox and his wife of 11 years had run a grocery and petrol store in Castledaly, about seven miles from Athlone, since moving there from Dublin in 2000.
Garda Supt Kevin Donohue said the bodies of Debbie Fox and the two boys were discovered after neighbours wondered why the shop was closed on the morning of July 28th, 2001.
Under questioning from prosecution counsel Mr Shane Murphy, Supt Donohue told the court Fox killed them after a late-night row that convinced him his wife was going to leave him for another man.
He said Fox told gardaí: "I loved the three of them. I loved my wife. She didn't love me. She was going to leave. I pleaded with her not to go. I only killed the kids because I didn't want them to wake up in the morning to see that."
He said court pathology reports showed Debbie died after her jugular vein was slashed and she received multiple stab wounds and several blows from a blunt object. He said Trevor died from multiple stab wounds to his head, neck, arms and trunk with 17 separate thrusts puncturing his rib cage. Cillian also died as a result of a multiple stab wounds. Both Trevor and Cillian had wounds on their hands believed to be from trying to ward off Fox's attacks, Mr Murphy told the court.
Both the families of Fox and his wife were in court yesterday but did not comment on the sentence.