School deputy head slit his eldest son’s throat first so he could not fight back as he butchered his wife and three kids then hanged himself
Wife's mum Mary Coll found a note Alan Hawe had pinned to the back door of the family home warning the next visitor not to step into the house
A DEPUTY headteacher slit the throat of his eldest son first to stop the 14-year-old fighting back as he butchered his mum and two siblings.
Alan Hawe used knives, a hatchet and his bare hands to slay his family at their home before he took his own life on August 29 last year.
Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis revealed the horrific injuries of Hawe’s victims at an inquest into their deaths.
Hawe's wife Clodagh died from axe and stab wounds while the three boys Liam, 14, Niall, 11, and Ryan, sixwere killed from stab wounds to their necks. Dr Curtis testified that the throats of all three children were cut.
While the exact sequence of death cannot be determined “with certainty”, the medical expert believes Clodagh and Liam were targeted first at the family home in Cavan, Ireland, to limit the likelihood of a successful fightback.
Dr Curtis said: “Working on the basis that he dispatched Clodagh and the older boy first, he would have rendered the possibility of a physical challenge less likely.”
The inquest heard evidence that his victims bravely fought for their lives as they were attacked with defensive injuries found on Clodagh, Liam and Niall.
After brutally murdering his family, Hawe then killed himself by hanging.
Asked by coroner Dr Mary Flanagan whether any other party was involved in the killings, Dr Curtis said: “None whatsoever.”
After the slaughter Hawe pinned a note to the back door warning the next visitor not to step into the house.
A police officer had earlier broken down in tears as she recounted the moment she walked in on the blood-soaked crime scene Hawe left behind.
Police officer Aisling Walsh broke down and wiped away tears as she recalled the scene.
She said: "They had no signs of life. They had their duvets on them."
Six-year-old Ryan was found alone in his bedroom and also had a duvet over him. Another knife was found there, the inquest heard.
Clodagh’s mum Mary Coll also told the inquest how she "knew something was wrong" when she found the note.
Ms Coll said: "I was just about to put the key in the door when I saw the note.
"I knew it was Alan's handwriting. I knew that something terrible had happened.
"I just had that feeling."
She told the inquest she had driven to her daughter's home after she did not turn up on time to drop two of her sons off. When she arrived she saw two cars in the driveway and the curtains drawn.
A jury of six women and one man is hearing the inquest in Cavan courthouse.
Mrs Coll told the hearing that she did not go into the house. She rang 999 and then went to a neighbour.
The note, written on a white envelope and stuck on the inside of the back door window, read: "Don't come in. Call the gardai."
Mrs Coll told the inquest: "I told them, I think Alan has done something terrible, that Alan had killed them all.
"I knew it was Alan's handwriting.
"I stood on the road for the guards and the rest you know."
At the opening of the hearing, coroner Dr Mary Flanagan said: "This is a particularly emotive inquest."
She said it was intended to establish four limited but factual questions - who the deceased were, when and where they died, and how they died.
Dr Flanagan also said that under the law the inquest was precluded from questioning civil or criminal liability.
Evidence from gardai who were first to enter the Hawe family home at Oakdene, Barconey, near Ballyjamesduff, said Mrs Hawe was found lying face down in her pyjamas and dressing gown on the sitting room sofa.
There was a pool of blood, the inquest was told.
A small axe and a knife was found beside the sofa, gardai told the hearing. Mr Hawe was found in the hall.
Gardai also told the hearing that a number of jewellery boxes were neatly piled on the centre of the bed in the master bedroom.
Downstairs, as well as the white envelope taped to the inside window of the back door, a number of other notes were found by gardai, all of which were written by Alan Hawe, the inquest was told.
There were bloodstains on some of the letters.
Mr Hawe had written a lengthy note on three white, unlined, A4 pages that were found in a sealed envelope on the kitchen table, forensic experts told the hearing.
There was also a second handwritten note, the inquest was told.
Garda John Sweetman, a forensic handwriting analyst, told the inquest that he was given samples of Mr Hawe's handwriting from a birthday card and another note to compare with the notes found in the home.
He said: "The possibility that another writer was involved is so remote that it can be discounted."
Evidence read into the record from Rodney Lakes, of Forensic Science Ireland, revealed that blood on the envelope was matched to Mr Hawe's DNA.
His analysis of the material also found that bloodstains on one of the letters matched Mr Hawe's DNA.
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There was also blood on one of the letters that Mr Lakes told the inquest provided a low-level DNA partial profile of Mrs Hawe.
Mr Hawe's jeans were also bloodstained, along with the left sleeve of his shirt. The inquest is continuing.
After the massacre, the family were buried together in the grounds of Castlerahan church.
However, Hawe’s remains were exhumed from the plot at the request of the Coll family in May of this year.