THE jury who delivered the verdicts in the deaths of three Mitchelstown brothers yesterday called on the Minister for Health to review and enhance local support services for people with mental illness.

The jury also asked that the role of community gardaí in relation to domestic issues be reviewed and said that “consideration should be given to engaging directly with people in distress”.

The six-person jury made the recommendations at the end of the inquest into the unlawful killings of Willie and Paddy Hennessy and the suicide of their brother Johnny on February 25.

66-year-old Willie and 60-year-old Paddy were killed at Johnny’s home in Curraghgorm before Johnny later took his own life. 59-year-old Johnny was found dead in the River Funshion on Friday, February 26.

Willie and Paddy died from multiple blows to their heads from an axe, according to pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster.

She said Willie had only two defensive injuries while she noted that Paddy had also sustained injuries to his thorax and chest, including fractured ribs, consistent with being caused by a flat head of an axe. Paddy also had injuries consistent with defensive wounds.

Dr Bolster said both Paddy and Willie would have been unconscious quickly as a result of the severity of their injuries. The court heard that the head of an axe recovered at the scene was covered in blood.

Both brothers were identified by dental records.

Dr Bolster said that Johnny had drowned and had some bruising consistent with getting into the water or from fast flowing water in the river.

She said there was no evidence of any other significant injuries to Johnny’s body.

Statements by the men's sister Breda O’Reilly and her husband Ned O'Reilly, were read into evidence. Johnny rang Breda at around 6pm on February 25 and told her of a row between the brothers.

CALL

In her statement, Breda told gardaí that Johnny seemed kind of stressed, adding that she got a fright from him. She described the call as unusual, adding that she had never received that sort of call from him before.

Breda gave the phone to Ned, who recalled that Johnny was roaring and out of breath.

He said Johnny had said: "I am in trouble, I am in trouble, can you come over, can you come over?"

He said there had been a row and that his brothers had beaten him up.

Ned said he told Johnny he wouldn't call to him, saying that the trip was outside his 5km limit, but said, with Johnny’s agreement, that he would contact gardaí.

Garda Tracey Howard said she rang Johnny immediately after receiving the call from Ned O'Reilly but Johnny assured her that the situation was now calm. She said he even joked that "at their age, they should know better."

She did not believe there was a need to go to the house. Her phone conversation with Johnny was overheard by Garda James Wade who described it as completely calm.

Paddy’s body was found at Curraghgorm after 11pm when his daughter Elaine and her mother Stephanie, from whom Paddy was separated, went there after he failed to return to the home he shared with Elaine in Mitchelstown.

The Coroner’s Court heard that several calls were made to the three brothers’ phones during the evening and night of February 25, including from Paddy’s girlfriend Kitty Russell. Paddy had left her house in Tipperary that day at around 2pm.

Most of the calls made to the phones went unanswered, but evidence was given of Johnny answering Willie’s phone when friend Garrett Roche rang it at around 8.05pm. Johnny told Mr Roche that Willie was listening to the news. Mr Roche tried calling again later but at that point, the phone was off.

When Elaine and Stephanie discovered Paddy at the timber yard, they could not find Willie, and Johnny’s vehicle was gone.

Willie’s body was discovered in a shed in the yard at around 5am by gardaí.

A search for Johnny was mounted and details of his car were released to the media. It was spotted by a woman driving in the Killacluig area around 5km from his home after she saw a television appeal about the case on the morning after the killings at Curraghgorm.

His red Toyota was parked at the home of the men’s friend, John McGrath, at Drough, near Killacluig church, resulting in a major search.

Garda Pat Harrington of the Dog Unit found Johnny's belongings on the river bank. They included car keys, false teeth, a brightly coloured baseball cap and an empty cigarette box and plastic bottle. He said there was an indentation on the bank indicating someone had sat down, while there were footprints indicating where Johnny had entered the water.

His body was recovered a short distance away by the air support unit.

VERDICT

After the jury returned their verdict in the inquest, the coroner, Dr Michael Kennedy, extended his sympathy to the family, friends and neighbours of the Hennessys and said the men had been held in high regard.

He said he extended his sympathies especially to Paddy’s daughter Elaine, who not only found her father’s body but also had to identify both of her uncles.

He described the deaths as a tragedy of “terrible proportions”, especially given the deaths by suicide of the men’s brother Jerry and Paddy’s son Paudie previously.

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