A dispute has emerged over whether doctors who treated Deirdre Morley, who killed her three children in January 2020, will have to give evidence at the inquests into the children’s deaths.
In 2021, Deirdre Morley, a paediatric nurse, was found not guilty by reason of insanity of murdering her three children, Conor (9), Darragh (7) and Carla (3), at the family home in Newcastle, west Dublin, on January 24th, 2020.
A preliminary hearing of the inquests at the Dublin District Coroner’s Court on Friday heard Ms Morley has new legal representation and they are seeking that a number of doctors are questioned.
The submission by Ms Morley’s legal representatives followed an earlier ruling by senior 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.
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Dr Cullinane told the hearing on Friday she had asked both psychiatrists, Brenda Wright and Mary Davoren, to prepare new reports specifically for the inquests.
The coroner noted Ms Morley had changed her legal team since she had made a ruling on the scope of the inquests on July 28th.
Fiona Gallagher, counsel for Ms Morley, on Friday said the inquest should call the medical professionals who treated her client in the six months prior to the tragedy.
Ms Gallagher said evidence from various treating doctors should be examined to ensure her client’s mental state is “inquired into in a comprehensive and appropriate fashion”.
The evidence at issue includes medical records from doctors who treated her in St Patrick’s Hospital, as well as medics in Clondalkin and Tallaght.
Simon Mills SC, acting for consultant psychiatrist Olivia Gibbons, who treated Ms Morley in St Patrick’s, argued any evidence from Dr Gibbons would not be contemporaneous.
He noted Ms Morley was found not guilty of her children’s murders by reason of insanity following a 2021 trial at the Central Criminal Court.
Since a preliminary inquest hearing in 2023, Ms Morley and her legal team have “at no point in the intervening two and a half years” indicated this verdict was incorrect, he said.
The argument by Ms Morley’s legal team is “skeletal in the extreme”, Mr Mills said.
He noted it emerged during the 2021 trial that Ms Morley only formed an intention to harm her children in January 2020 and “did not tell anyone of that intention”.
None of her doctors in the six months before this “would have been able to disclose her intention” as they were not aware of it, he submitted.
However, Ms Gallagher argued medical notes from the six months leading up to the children’s deaths are particularly relevant as they cover “the deterioration” in Ms Morley’s mental state. She said Ms Morley told doctors during this period she did not believe she was a risk to others but she felt “unable to provide care to her children in her current state”.
Dr Cullinane said she will give both arguments “due consideration” and inform parties of her decision, via written correspondence, by next Monday or Tuesday.
The coroner expressed her condolences to the children’s father, Andrew McGinley, who was present at Friday’s hearing.
Speaking afterwards, Mr McGinley said he hopes the inquests “will lead to better care, diagnosis and treatment for patients”.
“Most of all it should lead to potential risks to children being greatly reduced, if not removed completely,” Mr McGinley said in a statement.
“This can only be achieved by all parties working collaboratively with the aim of preventing similar tragedies.
“It is only in that way that something positive can possibly be taken from the devastating deaths of Conor, Darragh and Carla.”
