TWO DUBLIN brothers have been jailed for life after a Central Criminal Court jury found them guilty of murdering a father of six in front of his wife and children.
Warren and Jeffrey Dumbrell, aged 36 and 30, had denied murdering Christopher Cawley (33) outside his home at the Tyrone Place flats in Inchicore in October 2006. Following almost 10 hours of deliberations over two days, the jury unanimously found Jeffrey Dumbrell guilty, and convicted Warren Dumbrell by a majority 10-2 verdict.
There was a heavy Garda presence in court as the verdict was returned, but neither of the Dumbrells gave any reaction. Mr Cawley’s widow, Janette Cawley, wept silently.
In her victim impact statement, she said her family had been left devastated by their loss, and her children cannot see a future without their father. One of her sons, who was just five years old when he witnessed his father’s murder, did not talk for three months after the killing.
Her eldest daughter, Máiread, who also witnessed the attack and gave evidence against the Dumbrells, dropped out of school and took on Mr Cawley’s role in the home.
Ms Cawley said she can no longer work and is dependent on her children. “I miss him,” she said. This was the second time the Dumbrells, of Emmet Place in Inchicore, were found guilty of Mr Cawley’s murder.
Their first conviction in 2008 was deemed “unsafe” by the Court of Criminal Appeal (CCA) because of comments made by the trial judge, Mr Justice Paul Carney, in a speech he gave while presiding over the case.
Mr Justice Carney’s speech included statements on a number of issues relevant to the trial, including fatal stabbings and sentencing policy, the court said. The CCA found this rendered their murder conviction unsafe, and ordered a retrial.
In handing down the mandatory life sentence to each of the Dumbrells last night, the retrial judge, Mr Justice Paul Butler, said he echoed his colleague Mr Justice Carney’s concern about knife crime. He said possession of knives was clearly “absolutely as dangerous” as firearms, and was not to be tolerated.
During the retrial, the court heard the Dumbrells had hunted Mr Cawley down and chased him into the flats, attacking him with a knife and a hurley when he fell on the stairwell. Ms Cawley told the court she screamed and pleaded with them to stop, but they continued with the attack.
Her husband was stabbed six times. The fatal wound severed the major artery in his leg and caused him to bleed to death within minutes.
The court heard that as Mr Cawley’s daughter was collapsed screaming on the ground, one of the Dumbrells said: “Your daddy’s gone now” as they walked away from the scene.
Jeffrey Dumbrell took the witness stand during the retrial and told the court he and Warren had only gone to Tyrone Place as “minders” for their younger brother, who had arranged a fight with Mr Cawley on the evening in question. Dumbrell said they just wanted to give Mr Cawley a “few slaps”, alleging he had run at their brother with a knife some days previously.
He also told the court Mr Cawley threatened him and Warren with a knife when they got to Tyrone Place, but that he had grabbed the knife from him. He claimed he had stabbed Mr Cawley in self-defence.
