Clodagh Hawe’s sister wants gardai better trained to deal with murder-suicides

The sister of a Cavan teacher who was killed by her husband wants improved training for murder-suicide investigations rolled out across all garda stations.

Jacqueline Connolly also said a review of the Clodagh Hawe case should be published to provide a greater awareness of the behaviours of “family annihilators”.

Alan Hawe, a vice-principal, killed himself, his 39-year-old wife Clodagh and their sons, Liam, 13, Niall, 11, and Ryan, six, in August 2016 at their home near Ballyjamesduff.

Ms Connolly, who has written a memoir called Deadly Silence, said the deaths were not investigated thoroughly by gardai and she wants this approach changed.

“He was dead, what did it matter? The ‘why’ wasn’t accounted for in that investigation, but it mattered to us,” she told RTE Radio’s Brendan O’Connor Show.

She said a second investigation carried out by the serious crime review team, authorised by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris in 2019, highlighted what was missed in the first investigation.

This included CCTV that had not been examined, digital evidence that was overlooked, and 20 key witnesses who needed to be reinterviewed using different techniques.

Ms Connolly said she has been told gardai in training will be advised to gather evidence in murder-suicides as though it is a case that will be prosecuted, but she said she wants that rolled out to all rural garda stations because officers were not prepared to “find Clodagh and the boys like that”.

She called on Mr Harris to release the findings of the serious crime review, for which Ms Connolly has seen a summary, because she said it was important that the recommendations are seen by domestic violence institutions.

“I really feel that it would warn people and show people the signs, behaviours, patterns of what family annihilators look like.”

Ms Connolly said the review heard from an expert that analysed a letter left by Hawe differently to those involved in the initial investigation, and that the teacher’s pornography “addiction” was also revealed.

“His murder letter was used to diagnose depression in an inquest, whereas in the serious crime review this showed – through (Scottish forensic criminologist) Professor David Wilson – actually there was pseudo-altruistic comments in that letter.

“He came across as caring, he wanted the perception of what he was when he was dead to be he was still a good man – that had nothing to do with depression.

“He could show that the behaviours and patterns leading up to their deaths, the research that was done digitally – that wasn’t shown in the first investigation – where Alan Hawe was researching up to a year before he killed them.”

She said Hawe had put a “distance” between her and her sister, and she would “never be able to have a conversation in the kitchen with Clodagh on my own”.

Ms Connolly said all texts she sent to her older sister were forwarded on to Hawe.

Recalling a tribute she wrote on her brother-in-law’s Facebook profile in the immediate aftermath of the deaths, Ms Connolly said she was operating on “autopilot” in her grief and her initial reaction was one of “pure shock and trauma”.

She said there was “chaos” following the deaths and that no one “said stop” to burying Hawe alongside the wife and children he had killed.

“The day after the funeral, myself and mam went to the grave, and I will never forget how mam looked that day.

“We stood there in silence, and I thought ‘what have we done?’ And as I thought it, she turned around and said ‘what have we done? We’ve buried him with them’.”

She added: “You can’t align the two events, this man who you trusted for so long did such a terrible thing.

“You know something must have happened, but never in a million years would you think – especially considering the findings of the serious crime review – that so much planning went into what he did that night.”