Sunday, September 15, 2013

Dad kills 3-year-old daughter in murder-suicide, after cutting mom out of his estate (Ballydehob, Ireland)

Why do these fathers kill the children? It's always about control and punishing the mother. 

The killer dad is identified as MARTIN MCCARTHY. 

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/murder-suicide-dad-wrote-his-young-wife-out-of-will-29580150.html

Murder suicide dad wrote his young wife out of will 
Grieving widow is now suing her late husband's estate for her share

RALPH REIGEL AND MAEVE SHEEHAN – 15 SEPTEMBER 2013

A YOUNG mother who lost her only child in a horrific murder suicide is suing her dead husband's estate after he wrote her out of his will.

Martin McCarthy, 50, a farmer from Ballydehob, killed his three-year-old daughter Clarissa and took his own life in March, leaving his young wife, Rebecca, 26, bereft and traumatised.

It has now emerged that in the days before the tragedy, Martin McCarthy had changed his will in an attempt to prevent his wife from inheriting his farm and other assets. He bequeathed the bulk of his estate, including buildings and farm land to his immediate family and a neighbour, according to informed sources.

Ms McCarthy discovered in May that her husband had excluded her from his will, at a time when she was still in the throes of grief. Sources said she was "stunned" by the news.

Ms McCarthy has now launched a High Court action to restore her legal entitlement to her share of the family home and farm on the shores of Audley Cove.

In a separate action, she is seeking compensation from her late husband's estate for trauma and distress over the loss of her little girl.

News of the legal action has stunned the tight-knit community of Ballydehob, where Martin McCarthy was born and raised and where Rebecca Bailey-Cejnar came to spend a gap year from school.

She was a young student from America on her transition year and was staying with a local family in Ballydehob, while attending school in Schull.

Martin McCarthy was a taciturn bachelor farmer in his 40s who worked a neighbouring farm.

The teenager approached McCarthy for help about a school project on farming. The pair soon began a secret relationship which resulted in marriage when she turned 18. Rebecca then left her home in California and moved into the small farm house.

He was regarded as being difficult and quiet. She was more sociable and involved in the community. But they both adored their daughter Clarissa.

It was no great secret locally that the marriage had become strained. Local people talked about McCarthy's fears that his young wife planned to leave him, and bring their only child back to her native California.

Her father, Harry Cejnar, later rubbished these reports. He told a newspaper that Clarissa didn't even have a passport, nor had her mother applied to get one for her.