A man who slaughtered his younger brother and two sisters before hurling the boy from a window has been given three life sentences.
Andy Cash, 26, admitted murdering 18-year-old Lisa Cash, as well as eight-year-old twins Christy and Chelsea Cawley, in the Tallaght area of Dublin in September 2022.
The city’s Central Criminal Court heard horrific details of the attack, with the three victims ambushed in their own home and stabbed hundreds of times.
In a statement, relatives including their mum Margaret McDonagh said: ‘Our whole world is gone and there isn’t anything that will change it.
‘We will live with this unbearable heartache and pain for the rest of our lives.’
Detective Garda Robert Whitty told the court Cash had been at a family event marking the one-year anniversary of a family member’s death.
After leaving, he took a taxi back to the family home and went inside while the driver waited.
The court was told the driver heard screaming but was unsure from where it was coming from before Cash came back out and said to call 999.
When police arrived Cash, who was described as acting erratically and aggressively, threw a TV from the top floor as officers approached the house.
They were then confronted with the sight of him dangling a child, Christy, who already appeared lifeless, from the window before dropping him to the ground.
Cash was eventually taken into custody after being subdued by force.
At the time, the commissioner of the Irish police service said it was one of the worst incidents he had heard of.
The scene was described as one of carnage, with all three young victims suffering ‘catastrophic’ injuries.
Lisa was found with 71 knife wounds to her face, neck, chest and limbs, including defensive injuries.
Christy had 107 slash and stab injuries, in addition to those caused falling from the first floor window, while Chelsea was stabbed 65 times.
During Tuesday’s court hearing Cash spoke only to enter guilty pleas to the three charges of murder.
The family said in a statement afterwards: ‘There is no amount of time a person can spend in a jail cell that will justify what has happened to our family.
‘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.
‘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.’
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