Family hopes inquest four years after Cawdery killings will provide answers

Married couple Michael and Marjorie Cawdery were both aged 83 when they were killed in a knife attack by a mentally ill man, Thomas McEntee, who had broken into their home in Portadown in May, 2017.

McEntee admitted manslaughter and was given a life sentence in June the following year.

But the pensioners’ family has faced an uphill battle to find out the full facts of what happened and to ensure lessons are learned so that it doesn’t happen again.

A coroner’s inquest into the deaths of Mr and Mrs Cawdery has now been listed for March 1 next year – nearly four years after the killings.

The Cawdery family believes several oppportunities were missed over the course of the week leading up to the horrific killing, when McEntee made four separate visits to hospital seeking help – on one occasion while completely naked, with cuts on his arm after self-harming, and believing his life to be in danger.

Son-in-law Charles Little, who was first on the scene following the horrendous slayings, has been campaigning for several years for the reform of mental health services in Northern Ireland.

He said the inquest could have been completed much sooner were it not for an “incompetent” review of the circumstances surrounding the incident, carried out by the Southern Trust in 2018.

Speaking to the News Letter, Mr Little said: “The first of March – that’s the current date – and the coroner expects that it will take at least two weeks and it will be held in Armagh.

“That’s nearly four years since the incident. It was delayed for nearly two years by the incompetent SAI review, which had to be withdrawn.

“The coroner then had to wait for them to do it all again.”

He added: “It could have been done within two years but for the incompetence of that first review.”

The trust’s Serious Adverse Incident (SAI) report, which has been seen by the News Letter, found that there was “nothing” that could “reasonably have predicted that (Thomas McEntee) was at risk of carrying out such an act”.

That report was thrown out following criticism from the family and a new review had to be completed, which arrived at different conclusions, before the inquest sought by the family could take place.

An independent panel, appointed by health authorities to investigate the deaths, completed its work in July last year.

The new review found that the deaths of Mr and Mrs Cawdery could have been avoided.

In August last year, the top civil servant in the Department of Health apologised to the family for the health service’s “failings” and the handling of McEntee’s care.

Mr Little said: “We would be hopeful that the coroner’s inquest will fully get to the bottom of everything that happened.

“But it is not just to give us answers, it is to give Northern Ireland answers as to how they handle these problems.”