'KILLER MUM'S MENTAL HEALTH KEY TO INQUEST'

Morley lawyers say medics who treated her should give evidence

- BY SEÁN McCÁRTHAIGH

LAWYERS for a mother who killed her three children at their family home in Dublin almost five years ago have claimed an inquest into their deaths would be “inadequate and insufficient” if it did not examine the state of her mental health at the time of the tragic incident.

Counsel for Deirdre Morley, Fiona Gallagher BL, told a sitting of Dublin District Coroner's Court the inquest into her children's deaths needed to call medical professionals who had treated her in the previous six months to give evidence rather than rely on expert witnesses.

The bodies of her three children - Conor, 9, Darragh, 7, and Carla, 3, McGinley - were discovered in their home at Parson's Court, Newcastle, Co Dublin on January 24, 2020.

Ms Morley, a paediatric nurse, was subsequently found not guilty of their murder by reason of insanity following a trial at the Central Criminal Court in May 2021.

A postmortem showed the three young siblings had all died from suffocation.

The submission by Ms Morley’s legal representatives followed a ruling by coroner Myra Cullinane that evidence to be heard at the inquest about her mental health state would be given by two forensic consultant psychiatrists who had also given evidence at her criminal trial.

Dr Cullinane pointed out that she had asked both psychiatrists, Brenda Wright and Mary Davoren, to prepare new reports specifically for the inquest.