Dad stabbed three kids' windpipes so they 'wouldn't scream' after he hid dark secret
WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: Alan Hawe slaughtered his wife, Clodagh, and their three children, Liam, Niall and Ryan, and in a letter he left behind he spoke about being 'caught red-handed'
A "respected" school vice principal committed a horrific act of violence against his family, resulting in a murder-suicide nine years ago. The sister of the victim has now provided a chilling perspective on his motives.
Alan Hawe, aged 40, gruesomely ended the lives of his children, Liam, 13, Niall, 11, and Ryan, six, in their sleep in August 2016. Prior to this, he had brutally killed his wife, Clodagh, 39, using a hatchet, knife, and his bare hands in the family's sitting room in County Cavan, Ireland.
Jacqueline Connolly, Clodagh's sister, released a memoir titled Deadly Silence this month and has discussed Hawe's pornography addiction. She suspects that the potential revelation of this secret played a significant role in his appalling actions.
Speaking to RTE Radio One, she said: "I suppose it would be social death if anybody found out that he had that addiction.
"I couldn't believe it when I was told. You know, to me, Alan was boring. He was socially inept. Holier than thou. He was very much involved in the church and the community, the GAA (Irish football) club.
"And the go-to man if anybody wanted anything done, the vice principal of the school. He was very much respected. And so if this was to come out, it was going to bring on a lot of shame."
Regarding whether this contributed to his dreadful deeds, she stated: "Absolutely. The Serious Crime Review Team have revealed the evidence behind all of that. You've placed yourself as a brilliant father, husband and colleague. The shame of what he was looking at, to him, was the end of the world."
Hawe family
Alan Hawe, known for being a devout Catholic, served as the vice principal at Castlerahan National School. Clodagh, his wife, was also in the teaching profession at Oristown National School in County Meath, where she was revered as a "wonderful, dedicated and caring teacher for pupils".
Externally, Hawe appeared to be a community stalwart, presenting as a model citizen. Nevertheless, within the privacy of his home, he frequented Russian dating sites, indulged in wearing his wife's lingerie, and had an addiction to pornography.
He maintained covert email accounts that he used to view pornographic content, including illegal images of children.
Ireland's largest murder-suicide
Clodagh was having tea and looking at family holiday options when Hawe savagely ended her life.
Her sister Jacqueline painfully spoke of Clodagh's last moments: "He came in behind her and he hit her in the head with the axe and he stabbed her in the back and she put up her hand to defend herself and he basically nearly sawed her hand off.
"He killed her like he hated her. He didn't need to use two weapons, he killed her with such brutality it was evil. He then sat down and he wrote the letter because he had left the axe and knife on the floor. He took up a new knife and went upstairs."
Having written the suicide note, Hawe seized another knife and ascended the stairs to end the lives of his sons with throat wounds as they slept. After committing this atrocity, he returned downstairs to compose another message.
Hawe, who ended his own life shortly afterwards, penned: "All the good stuff we did I was really into it. But I think there was some sort of psychosis that made me enjoy that yet in the next moment I was the complete opposite. I'm sorry for how I murdered them all but I simply had no other way."
Jacqueline, while revealing the terrible details of her nephews' murders, courageously said: "We know he put his knee on Liam's chest and cut through his windpipe to render him silent. Niall was sharing a room with Liam so Niall probably wouldn't have woken up because Liam couldn't scream out but he had defensive wounds on his hands.
"He did the same to Niall and then he went to Ryan's room. Ryan was the smallest of the three of them. He was very slight and thin for his age but during the inquest we were told that [Hawe] used a sawing action on Ryan and then he just threw a duvet cover over all of them and left the knife that he used on Ryan's pillow. That is evil. That is not depression. That is force brutality and it is control."
Further unsettling revelations came when a state pathologist suggested that Hawe might have stabbed the children in their Adam's apples to prevent them from screaming.
Secret shame
In his final written confession, Hawe referred to being "caught red-handed", and the fear of exposure upon his return to school, believing "it was all going to blow up".
Reflecting on the content of his suicide note, Jacqueline recently deduced: "I don't see it any way other than he enjoyed what he did."
He had been attending counselling sessions for his pornography addiction, with notes indicating the teacher "masturbated somewhere he shouldn't have - possibly school".
Following his death, the school's legal representatives stated there was no proof that he accessed pornographic material during school hours. However, it is thought that he chose to kill his entire family due to concerns that his secrets might be exposed.
In her memoir, Jacqueline expresses her conviction that the gardai (Irish police) failed to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the deaths. She is now urging officials to release the results of a subsequent inquiry by the Serious Crime Review Team.
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