Deirdre Morley found not guilty by reason of insanity of murdering her three children

• Author: Colm Keena Legal Affairs Correspondent, Alison O'Riordan
• Published date: 20 May 2021
• Date: 20 May 2021
• Publication title: Irish Times: Web Edition Articles (Dublin, Ireland)

The jury came back at 15.44, having spent four hours and 23 minutes considering their verdict.

Ms Morley (44), of Parson's Court, Newcastle, Co Dublin, was charged with murdering Conor McGinley (9) and Darragh McGinley (7), and Carla McGinley (3) and had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Their bodies were discovered by their father, Andrew McGinley, in their home on January 24th, 2020, the trial at the Central Criminal Court heard.

The jury accepted the evidence given by two psychiatrists that the accused, a nurse who specialised in renal care at Our Lady's Hospital in Crumlin, was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the three killings and fulfilled the criteria for the special verdict.

She showed no reaction when the verdicts were read out. She has now been committed back to the Central Mental Hospital, to May 31st, when the matter is due to be mentioned again before the court. Under the law a new review must be now carried out by a consultant psychiatrist as part of the consideration of her future care.

The case, Ms Morley's defence counsel had told the jury, was a "tragedy of enormous proportions", with the "tragic irony" of the accused being someone who had committed her entire professional life to the care of children as a paediatric nurse.

The two consultant forensic psychiatrists called as expert witnesses were both in agreement that the accused was unable to appreciate what she had done was morally wrong and was unable to refrain from her actions.

In his closing speech, defence counsel Michael Bowman SC said the case was a "tragedy of enormous proportions" that had been visited upon parents who were "utterly committed" to the welfare of their children. He stressed that the tragic loss of three children was at the core of the case and their parents had been left in a set of circumstances where their offspring were no longer with them. It was clear, he said, that his client was labouring under a mental illness which was defined within the Criminal Law Insanity Act 2006.

Tragic ironies

Mr Bowman suggested that one of "the tragic ironies" in the case was that the accused had committed her entire professional life to the care of children as a paediatric nurse and bore that responsibility heavily on her own shoulders but had suffered from depression and anxiety since the late 1990's. "Despite the best efforts of those around her and the level of support they offered, it was not enough to prevent her slipping into a state of delusion...