Portadown killings: elderly couple's deaths "entirely preventable" - coroner
The 83-year-old pair were stabbed to death at their home in 2017
Last updated 13th Dec 2023
The killing of an elderly couple from Co Armagh was "entirely preventable" a coroner ruled today (Wednesday).
Marjorie and Michael Cawdery, both 83, were stabbed to death at their home in Portadown, Co Armagh, on May 26, 2017.
Paranoid schizophrenic Thomas Scott McEntee, who is now aged in his mid-40s, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and was given a life sentence in June the following year.
Delivering inquest findings at Banbridge courthouse, coroner Maria Dougan identified a series of "omission and missed opportunities" that, if acted on by police and healthcare workers, would have meant McEntee would not have been in the location of the Cawderys' home on the day he killed them.
The coroner identified four incidents prior to the killings when McEntee had been displaying signs of mental illness and was involved in interactions with either police or health care staff.
The first was in Belfast city centre and then the Mater hospital in the city on May 22, the second was at Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry on May 24, the third was the following day in Warrenpoint, Co Down, and fourthly on May 26 at both Daisy Hill Hospital and Craigavon Area Hospital.
McEntee, who was from Kilkeel, Co Down, ultimately absconded from Craigavon Area Hospital and broke into the Cawderys' home on nearby Upper Ramone Park when they were out shopping.
When they returned to their house, he was still in the property and he killed them.
The coroner raised particular concern about a police failure to use powers available to them under mental health legislation to take McEntee to a place of safety when they encountered him in the days prior to the killings.
Ms Dougan also said she was not satisfied that all the lessons from the incident had been learned by the PSNI and Belfast and Southern health trusts.
The son-in-law of Marjorie and Michael Cawdery has said hearing the evidence about their deaths was "brutal and shocking".
Mr and Mrs Cawdery, both 83, were stabbed to death at their home in Portadown, Co Armagh, on May 26, 2017 by paranoid schizophrenic Thomas Scott McEntee.
A coroner has found the deaths of the retired couple were "entirely preventable" if police and health care workers had dealt differently with his killer in several interactions in the days leading up to the fatal incident.
Speaking outside Banbridge Courthouse, Charles Little said: "Although we have heard the evidence, going through it again it is still brutal and shocking.
"What is really, really shocking is the utter chaos that appears to have existed in both the health service and the police, and their inability to appreciate how ill this man was.
"It was just really breath-taking how bad it was."
Concluding her lengthy findings, coroner Marie Dougan said: "I find on the balance of probabilities that the deaths of Michael and Marjorie Cowdery on the 26th of May 2017 in their own home were entirely preventable."
She added: "On all the evidence before me there was a succession of omissions and missed opportunities emanating from poor communication, a lack of informed and effective decision-making on the part of police officers in the Police Service of Northern Ireland and staff in the Belfast trust and Southern trust in their contact, care and treatment of Mr McEntee.
"These omissions and missed opportunities, whilst analysed individually may not be considered grave, the combination had devastating consequences.
"I find that had these opportunities not been missed, the course of events would have been different and would have changed the outcome."