FEW who saw Frank McCann's reaction to the blaze which was killing his wife and the infant niece they had been hoping to adopt could have imagined what the investigation into their deaths would reveal.
As neighbours raised a ladder to the front bedroom window and the emergency services arrived in the early hours of September 4th, 1992, McCann adopted the role of distraught husband. He was restrained by his neighbours as he struggled to reach the ladder.
But soon his version of events began to unravel. The credibility of anonymous threats which he claimed had been made to him came into question detectives learned of, the Adoption Board's decision to refuse the McCanns" application to adopt baby Jessica and evidence emerged of what gardai believe were other attempts by him to kill Esther.
As a major investigation involving dozens of gardai led by Supt Pat King and Det Insp Anthony Sourke was initiated, McCann made his first statement at Rathfarnham Garda station Dublin, on September 5th, the day after the fire. It took five hours.
In the course of detailed inquiries which included house to house checks, the circulation of questionnaires, checkpoints and the taking of dozens of statements, gardai considered several possibilities could the fire have been started by someone with a grudge against McCann, a former employee, or subversives?
But these possibilities were disposed of and suspicions grew about McCann, who was able to give little assistance to the gardai about why he would be targeted for such a crime. Suspicions were compounded by the history of gas leaks which intensified when the adoption issue came to light.
The central plank of the State's case was that McCann killed his wife in a premeditated act because he did not want her to find out why the Adoption Board had refused their application to adopt 18 month old Jessica. The baby was the daughter of McCann's sister, Jeannette, and had been in his and his wife's care since shortly after her birth.
The refusal of the Adoption Board, to approve the formal adoption was based on an investigation into allegations that McCann had had a sexual relationship with a 17 year old girl who had given birth to his child. The board's policy required that Esther and Jeannette should be told of the decision and the reasons for it.
The complaint about McCann's relationship with the girl was made by her mother in a telephone call to the Adoption Board on April 16th, 1991. The application to adopt Jessica was submitted to the board a month later. McCann subsequently denied the allegation and there were a number of queries from the McCanns and Jeannette about delays. The board was said to have been surprised at the strident approach adopted by McCann during his dealings with it.
McCann and Esther O'Brien, a native of Tramore Co Waterford, were married on May 22nd, 1987. The 17 year old gave birth later that summer and her child was put up for adoption. The late Father Michael Cleary, who was a friend of the girl's family, represented them in discussions with McCann and an anonymous payment of £500-£600 was made to the girl's father.
Gardai believe McCann was "consumed" by the adoption and a determination that Esther and others would not learn of the issues surrounding it. In the words of prosecuting counsel, Mr Kenneth Mills, McCann had decided for the "most irrational reasons" not to tell his wife or Jessica's mother why he had not been approved as a person fit to adopt.
The trial was told the board informed the McCanns' solicitor of its final decision on July 28th 1992. But, according to gardai and Esther McCann's family McCann was aware in advance of this date. Gardai say the murder plot was under way from the beginning of July.
Thai month, four gas leaks were reported at the McCann "home at Butterfield Avenue, Rathfarnham.
The first leak on July 3rd was found to be false when it was examined by Bord Gais, but the second on July 16th was genuine and was classified as a Class A leak requiring urgent action. Ten days later, another gas leak was reported at the house, but a Bord Gais employee could find no trace of it when he investigated.
The most serious leak occurred during the early hours of July 28th. It was reported to An Bord Gais by McCann at 7.55 a.m. after it had been discovered by his wife, who telephoned him in his pub in Blessington, Co Wicklow. Mrs McCann said afterwards she woke with a blinding headache and got the smell of onions cooking. She took Jessica out of bed, put her into the car and pushed the vehicle out of the driveway. She then contacted her husband on a mobile phone.
When gas fitter arrived he found a colossal level of gas in the hallway sufficient to cause an explosion if a match was struck or a light switch used.
The leak resulted from the complete parting of two gas joints which, the trial was told, could only have happened after heat had been applied to the joints and they had been prised apart. The joints had been installed a week earlier when the gas meter in the house was being upgraded and gardai believe they were dismantled by McCann in an attempt to kill Esther.
A family friend who was visiting the house on the night of July 27th described her as being, "very dopey" when she was going to bed and said she went upstairs and "barely said good night". The friend was driven home a short time afterwards by McCann.
According to Mrs McCann's family, suspicions were not raised, because of the incidents in the preceding weeks. At the same time, Esther's 17 year old, nephew, James Leonard, who had been in remission from bone cancer, had been diagnosed as having "secondaries" and was due to go into hospital on July 28th. According to James's mother Marion, this news had "broken" Esther's heart and McCann had used the distress of the family to "cover up" what he was doing.
Mrs McCann's family also gave the gardai details of what they, suspect was another attempt by her husband to take her life, although it was not related to the jury because the only evidence, relating to it was hearsay.
It happened on August 14th, when Esther was awakened by telephone ringing and found an electric blanket on fire on her abed. The blanket, which was folded in four on the foot of the bed, had not been placed there by, Esther and had last been seen lying on the back of a chair in another bedroom.
McCann entered the bedroom as his wife was putting out the fire and yanked the plug out of the wall. He then left for Blessington in response to the telephone call, which was made by gardai to inform him that the alarm was ringing at his pub. The blanket was disposed of by McCann some time later and was never available for examination by gardai.
Esther is said to have been mystified by these events, but her family say that she was by this point more likely to doubt her own actions that to seriously question those of her husband.
She was worried about herself and Jessica, and was losing her self confidence, so she went to her doctor for help. By early September she was in better form, and in conversation with her sister, Marian Leonard, on September 3rd, she resolved that she was going to have the adoption sorted out" before Christmas. "Esther was making decisions again and was determined that things were going to be sorted out, says Mrs Leonard.
She had an appointment at the Coombe Hospital the following day September 4th at which she intended to retrace the steps that had been taken during the adoption to ensure that every thing had been done correctly.
But it was an appointment she never kept. At about 2 a.m. that day a fire killed Esther McCann and Jessica. Esther sustained extensive, burns and died from the inhalation of smoke or fumes which included carbon monoxide. Her body was found on the landing of the house. Jessica still had a soother in her mouth when her blackened body was taken from her cot.
The trial was told it was the belief of investigating gardai that McCann had set up a situation whereby he would cause what became a raging inferno by the use of a blowtorch operation on a gas cylinder. The prosecution case was that McCann set the fire, left the scene and returned a short time later and played the part of the distraught husband.
The court was told McCann was in the garden shouting "Esther" and "my baby". According to a neighbour, Mrs Marie Daly, he was "visibly very upset and very distraught". He kept on saying. "My wife and my baby are LIP there" and was pointing to both windows. Mrs Daly was one of those comforting and restraining him when he apparently fainted on the front lawn.
According to McCann, he arrived at the house at 10 p.m. on September 3rd, examined a suspicious mark on the dining room door and rang gardai. He had a cup of tea with his wife and stayed watching a film until about 11 p.m., when he returned to the pub in Blessington. He said he locked the pub at 1.20-1.30 p.m. and drove straight home. When he arrived he saw people on the road and first thought there was a party.
A barman told the court McCann left the pub at about 8.40 p.m. and returned at about 10.15 pm. McCann was still in the bar when he left at 1 a.m. and had about half an hour of work to do. Mrs Peg Gethings said McCann left her chip shop in Blessington at about 12.40 p.m. She heard the gate between her premises and the pub creak at about 1 a.m. and this may have been McCann.
The prosecution maintained McCann drove back to Rathfarnharn a journey of about 20 minutes and started the fire in the hallway/stairwell area with a gas cylinder and a blowtorch which were found in the house afterwards. The result, was "a fast, ferocious fire in a very short period of time". An examination of the house by An Bord Gais early that morning found no gas leak.
Both slide's in the trial accepted the fire was deliberate, but the precise means by which it was started remain unclear. Tests on behalf of the prosecution in the UK indicated that some form of accelerant, such as petrol, would have had to be used. But no trace of this was found after the fire, although it has been suggested that the intense heat could have burned off an accelerant.
In a statement of admission to gardai two months after the fire, McCann spoke of having petrol in a can, of it falling over, of having a lighted match and of flames everywhere" Gardai also say McCann, from his days as a cooper, had knowledge of highly flammable substances.
Mr Mills told the jury that in the weeks before the fire McCann, had left an "elaborate fabrication of a false trail". On August 13th he told Rathfarnham and Blessington gardai of threatening phone calls to his home and pub. On August 31st he says he found the slogan "Burn You Bastard" printed on the rear wall of the pub.
McCann also claimed a man had come into his pub on September 2nd and had asked for a telephone directory. The following day he discovered the word Burn written beside the listing for his pub in the directory and the word "Bastard" beside another Blessington pub.
Gardai believe he invented the visit of this man to, cover his tracks after being told it would be possible to trace the phone from which threatening calls had been made. Gardai believe they had reasonable proof that a threatening call to one of the pubs had originated from his house.
McCann was arrested at his pub at 1.25 p.m. on November 4th, 1992, and was held for 48 hours under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.
At around midday on November 6th he began his statement of admission. He was released at 1.22 p.m., in accordance with the provisions of Section 30, but returned at 1.29 p.m. on a voluntary basis and completed the statement. He signed the notes of the statement along with two of his brothers and three gardai.