Image source, Family photos
A man who stabbed his younger brother and two sisters hundreds of times before throwing the boy out of a window has pleaded guilty to their murders.
Andy Cash killed his 18-year-old sister Lisa Cash and his eight-year-old twin brother and sister, Christy and Chelsea Cawley in Dublin in September 2022.
A court heard horrific details of the attack he carried out in home they shared in Rossfield Avenue in Tallaght.
Cash was given three separate life sentences for the murders.
A powerful victim impact statement, compiled by the victims’ mother Margaret McDonagh and other relatives, was read to Dublin’s Central Criminal Court.
“Our whole world is gone and there isn’t anything that will change it”, they said.
“We will live with this unbearable heartache and pain for the rest of our lives”.
Warning – this article contains distressing content
Gardaí (Irish police) told the sentencing hearing that in the lead-up to the stabbings, there was a family event to mark the one-year anniversary of a relative’s death.
Detective Garda Robert Whitty said alcohol was consumed and other family members became uncomfortable with some of the things Andy Cash was saying.
Cash then left the gathering and took a taxi to Rossfield Avenue and went inside the family home while the driver waited in the taxi.
The court heard the twins, Chelsea and Christy were asleep in bed while Lisa Cash was watching TV in another room.
The taxi driver heard screaming but was unsure where it was coming from.
The defendant then emerged from the house and told the driver to call 999.
When the Garda Emergency Response Unit (ERU) arrived they saw Cash upstairs acting erratically and aggressively.
He threw a television from the top floor and as officers approached the house he dangled a child from the window.
The child, who already appeared lifeless, was dropped to the ground, Det Gda Whitty said.
Image source, Damien Eagers/PA Media
Police tried to enter the house but were repelled by Cash who was still acting violently.
ERU members then forced entry to the home and used non-lethal weapons to subdue the killer.
The court heard the scene was one of carnage and all three young victims had suffered “catastrophic” injuries.
They found Lisa Cash badly injured at the bottom of the stairs but were unable to save her life.
A post-mortem examination revealed 71 slash and stab injuries to her face, neck, chest and limbs.
There were also signs that the teenager had tried to defend herself from the attack.
Christy suffered 107 sharp force injuries before being thrown out a first floor window of the house.
His twin sister Chelsea was stabbed and slashed 65 times.
‘Asked for money’
Later Garda inquiries revealed that when he arrived at the house, Cash had first entered Lisa’s room.
The teenager was overheard telling her older brother that she did not have any money and that he should not be there.
Cash then began stabbing Lisa in the doorway of her bedroom before turning on the twins.
On Tuesday, Cash spoke only to answer “guilty” when the three murder charges were read to him.
A defence barrister told the court that since going into custody in September 2022, his client had been assessed by two psychiatrists and a psychologist.
He said Cash asked him to say that he was “sorry for his actions and sorry to the people he has hurt”.
The judge said his three life sentences will run concurrently.
‘Beautiful, kind and loving children’
But the family’s victim impact statement said: “There is no amount of time a person can spend in a jail cell that will justify what has happened to our family.”
They added: “Lisa, Christy and Chelsea deserved so much more from life, they deserved to grow old and live their lives however they would have chosen to and to have families of their own.
“They were the most beautiful, kind and loving children in the world. We will cherish every memory made with them and love and miss them forever.”
The family said there were not enough words to describe the pain and hurt that is in their hearts.
“We miss everything about them, hearing their voices, their laughs, the conversations we would have, the games we would play as a family, the hugs and kisses that we won’t ever get from them again,” they wrote.
“We are no longer the people we were when they were alive as we died with them that day. We do not know how to live in this world without them.
“It’s a struggle we live with every day.”
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
