IRELAND • Amy, 5 mos, Reece, 3½, Sarah HINES & Alicia BROUGH ~ Rockchapel, Co Cork

Latest: State pathologist arrives in NCW after shocking quadruple murder; suspect taken to hospital in Cork and questioning suspended


Gardai on patrol outside the house in Newcastle West where the bodies of two women and two children were discovered this afternoon.

Published Date:
16 November 2010

THE state pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy, arrived in Newcastle West at 12.30 this Wednesday to conduct post-mortems on the two women and two young children brutally murdered by a man arrested in Kilkee yesterday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the 31-year-old man who was dramatically arrested in the Central Bar in Kilkee on Tuesday afternoon has been taken to the University Hospital in Cork because of wounds to his hands which may plastic surgery. Questioning of the suspect has been suspended as a result.

The Garda Technical Unit remains at the house in Newcastle West, along Dr Cassidy, who had spent much of yesterday in Ballycotton, Co Cork, where a father and two young children also died in shocking and tragic circumstances.

Garda in Newcastle West are still piecing together one of the most violent crimes in Limerick's history.

The bodies of 25-year-old Sarah Hines, her three-and-a-half-year-old son Reece, her five-month-old baby daughter Amy and 20-year-old Alicia Brough, from Rockchapel in Co Cork, were discovered at a house in the sleepy Hazelgrove Estate shortly after 1.35pm yesterday afternoon, following a tip-off to local gardai from a member of the public. It is understood that all four had been violently stabbed to death.

The home and a large section of the estate were sealed off on Tuesday night ahead of the arrival of the Dr Cassidy and a Garda technical team.

Chief Supt David Sheahan described the incident as the worst crime to take place locally in recent history: "Something like this happening in Newcastle West is unreal," he said. "This has been a very traumatic incident, not only for the people in Newcastle West, but for the family members of the deceased people involved in this investigation. I want to offer our sympathies to those people and to make sure that we're thinking of them in our prayers."

Following the gruesome discovery of the victims' bodies, a massive Garda operation took place across Limerick and Clare, and at 4.15pm gardai entered the Central Bar in Kilkee and arrested a 31-year-old man, who is originally from Milford in North Cork but had recently been living in Dromcollogher and Newcastle West.

There was a terrible combination of shock and grief among the people of Newcastle West on Tuesday as word of the terrible crime spread throughout the town.

Chief Supt Sheahan said that the bodies of the two women were found in a downstairs room, while the bodies of the two children were found in an upstairs bedroom.

He said that all four "came across their death very violently indeed".

Gardai would not confirm the details of the relationship between the victims and the alleged suspect on Tuesday.

It is understood that Ms Hines had been living at the rented house with her children for two months, and that the alleged suspect moved in with them after he left Dromcollogher approximately 10 days ago.

It is understood that he had been studying at the Dromcollogher organic college, An tIonad Glas.

Gardai are currently pursuing a number of lines of enquiry in their investigation, including the possibility that the murders took place on Monday, and that the remains of the four victims were left in the house overnight.

House to house inquiries are expected to be carried out in the area on Wednesday, while an incident room has been set up at Newcastle West garda station and can be contacted on 069-20650.

Ireland’s day of unspeakable horror as four children are ‘murdered by their fathers’

Posted on 17 Nov 2010 at 11:17pm
Father strangles his two children after his wife goes to work

• The jobless builder then douses himself in petrol and dies in fireball
  
• Hours later, two children, their mother and family friend are murdered
  
• Suspect arrested in pub – two tragedies are not related
  

Two families were today struggling to cope with the murder of four children and three adults in a day of horrific violence in Ireland.

Early yesterday, a father-of-two strangled his seven-year-old and two-year-old daughters, in the little Cork fishing village of Ballycotton.

He then doused himself with petrol and smashed his car into a tree.

Later in the day, 80 miles away in Newcastle West, Co. Limerick, another man allegedly stabbed his three-year- old son, five-month-old daughter, their mother and her friend.

There was nothing to connect the two horrific incidents.

Torn apart: John Butler (left) murdered his daughters Ella (pictured right with her mother Oona) and Zoe before killing himself

The prime suspect in the Newcastle West killings was arrested a few hours after the bodies of his former partner, Sarah Hines, 25, their son Reece and daughter Amy were found along with a 21-year-old female friend.

Horrified police found the children stabbed to death in bloodstained rooms in the downstairs of a rented home in the Hazlegrove estate. The dead women were upstairs.

Found at home: Sarah Hines was found dead alongside her two children and a friend


Meanwhile, in Cork a team of detectives face a harrowing investigation into the murder of two young children by their own father.

Unemployed John Butler, 43, was not known to have been troubled before he attacked his girls, Zoe and Ella, doused his car in petrol and crashed it two miles from the family bungalow overlooking Ballycotton fishing port.The two dead girls were also found by police in the living room minutes after finding the car ablaze.

A neighbour raised concerns after one of them had not turned up at school.

It is believed Butler, a former steel worker and builder who had not worked for several months, attacked them after their mother Oonagh left for work in the Revenue offices in Cork city. Archbishop Dermot Clifford, the Apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Cloyne in Cork, offered his sympathies to the family.

‘I am deeply shocked to learn of the tragic deaths of two children and their father in Ballycotton today,’ he said.

‘My heart goes out to all concerned; the children’s mother, the extended family, relatives and friends and the community of Ballycotton and to the people of the whole parish of Cloyne.

‘On behalf of the people and priests of the diocese, I offer my sincere and heartfelt condolences and I ask for prayers for the deceased and for those who are grieving.’

Both houses were sealed off as forensic experts from the State Pathologists office were called in. It is understood neither man had a full-time job.

Health chiefs arranged for counsellors to support relatives and friends in both communities as they tried to come to terms with the deaths.

The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children said the tragedies were worrying.

‘Combined with the very personal tragedy these families’ deaths represent for their extended families, friends and neighbours, these deaths also raise serious concerns regarding child protection and family support , and raise many questions for all voluntary and statutory agencies working with vulnerable families,’ the agency said.
Grim discovery: Swings and trampolines outside the house where the two Butler girls were found