Mother calls for action on problem of filicide

A mother whose husband and two children died in a murder suicide has said the country needs to “wake up” and face its filicide problem.

Una Butler’s husband John killed their two young daughters Ella (6) and Zoe (2) on November 16th, 2010. Mr Butler (41) subsequently died after crashing his car into a ditch.

In an interview with Miriam O'Callaghan on RTÉ radio today, Mrs Butler said that since 2000 38 children in Ireland have been murdered by one of their parents in 27 cases of filicide.

She called for immediate action on the issue.

“There should be more independent in depth investigations in order to learn from research to help prevent further cases of filicide. John murdered them because he was sick. That is what I am putting it down to. The reasons my girls are dead is because of John’s mental illness.”

Mrs Butler, who is from Ballycotton, Co Cork recently attended a major conference on filicide in Italy where researchers indicated that, in many cases, mental health problems were a key factor.

Mrs Butler said she never believed her children were at risk from her husband.

“Even now, it is unreal - there is an air of unreality about it. How can a parent kill their own children? There are questions that I will never have answered. What came over John that morning? His illness was very hard to live with. But he never harmed Zoe and Ella. He never, ever harmed me.”

Mrs Butler expressed concern about the stigma attached to mental health problems. “Why is the mind treating differently to the body. It is the stigma. People are ashamed. It shouldn’t be like that.”

Mrs Butler called for changes in the way mental health patients are treated. She wants mandatory risk assessments to be conducted on the families and children of mental health patients.

She also called for the Mental Health Act to be changed to require medical personnel to involve the partners and families of mental health patients in their treatment.

“Patient confidentiality doesn’t have to be broken by involving the spouses or partners. “

Mrs Butler said she remains bereft over her husband’s actions and sad for the state of mind he was in when he killed their young children.

“I will never forgive John for what he did to Zoe and Ella. A lot of the time I’m angry with him. But I’m also sad - I feel sad for him. Trying to live without them is extremely hard. But I am living their lives for them now. Their spirits are with me all the time.”