Cawdery killings: PSNI apologises 'unreservedly' to family of murdered Portadown couple

Mr and Mrs Cawdery, both 83, were stabbed to death at their home on May 26, 2017 by a man with a serious mental illness.

In the days before their deaths, the attacker Thomas Scott McEntee had come to the attention of both police and health services.

The PSNI has now issued an apology for its failings.

Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said: “I recognise that the family of Mr and Mrs Cawdery have had to live with the lasting impact of this horrendous attack and the loss of Michael and Marjorie.

"We have, following the stark findings of the Inquest, carried out our own internal review, and a Serious Adverse Incident Review conducted by the Health Trust, established a Gold Co-ordinating Group under Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson, Head of our Justice Department, to develop an action plan to address identified shortcomings and develop our engagement with the Department of Health and other partners. I am keen to reassure the family about our commitment to this work.“I want to reiterate my sincere apologies to the Cawdery family on behalf of the Police Service of Northern Ireland for all failings which have been highlighted in our handling of this tragic case. It is imperative that we learn the lessons and do everything we can to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.”

The apology comes after findings from an inquest into the couple’s deaths were released in December, which flagged up a need for change in how organisations deal with people with mental health issues.

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster on Thursday, Mr and Mrs Cawdery’s son-in-law Charles Little said the chief constable had spoken to him ahead of the release of the apology and the family were “happy” with it.

He said mental health issues were not solely the responsibility of the health service, nor of the police, but there needed to be a joint approach to help prevent the high number of “avoidable deaths” which took place year on year.