Reply to comment

Published: 22 July, 2010
by JOISE HINTON

THE mother of a man shot dead during a police siege 10 years ago has tragically ended her own life after being unable to come to terms with her son’s death.

Cathy O’Connor, 49, died after jumping under a train at Archway Tube station in January, hours after telling mental health professionals she “might as well jump off a bridge”, an inquest heard.

Her son Kieran O’Donnell was killed by police marksmen after an 11-hour stand-off in October 2000.

The 19-year-old, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, had barricaded his girlfriend and his mother inside a flat in Cathcart Hill.

His last words to his mother before being gunned down were: “Mum, I love you. I will see you in heaven. You have got to be strong in this world.” 

Ms O’Connor was released by Kieran unharmed but police intervened when concerns grew for his girlfriend who he attacked with a corkscrew.

Following a five-day inquest in 2002, a jury ruled that Kieran’s death by a single shot to the back was lawful because of the threat of him killing his hostage. 

The officer who fired the shot said he thought he was witnessing a murder.

In a heartfelt interview with the New Journal, Ms O’Connor, who moved to St John’s Grove, Archway, later said she felt the way the police response had escalated had been “heavy handed” and criticised mental health services for the way they had dealt with her son’s care before the incident.

In contrast to the hearing at St Pancras Coroner’s Court which investigated her son’s death, where TV crews and lawyers crammed into the court, a half-empty room was told about Ms O’Connor’s own tragic death.

It heard how she had maintained right up until her final days that her son had been failed by those expected to protect him.

The inquest was told that when contacted by professionals hours before she jumped on to the tracks, Ms O’Connor sounded “angry” and blamed them for the premature end to Kieran’s life. Speaking at the inquest, Rachel Cockerton, a community psychiatric nurse, described the conversation she had with Ms O’Connor at 12.40pm on January 5, around three hours before she went to Archway Tube station.

Ms Cockerton said: “She said that the crisis team had been responsible for the death of her son previously, so what was the point in seeing us. I explored this with her and she indicated that she had no intention of engaging with us. 

“She then calmed down and agreed to meet with us the following day, but declined a meeting that night. She sounded quite angry. I can’t recall the exact words but she just said what was the point and that the crisis team were responsible for the death of her son.”

Ms Cockerton made the phone-call following an incident in the early hours of January 4, when police took Ms O’Connor to the Whittington Hospital after she told a 999 operator she intended to harm herself. On arrival, Ms O’Connor, who was living in St John’s Grove, Archway, a five-minute walk from where her son was killed, told doctors she had “had enough” and needed some help.

During her interview with the New Journal in 2002, Ms O’Connor said she had been left alone to deal with her grief of losing her son in such shocking circumstances.

“There was no counselling offered. I have had to find that myself,” she said.

Dr Andrew Leggert, a trainee psychologist who assessed Ms O’Connor on January 4, told the court: “She seemed to be in crisis. She said she had had enough and was obviously quite depressed and wanted some help or some treatment. She was happy to accept help and because she was keen to engage I didn’t deem section to be necessary.”

It was agreed Ms O’Connor would be admitted to the Drayton Park women’s crisis centre – where she had spent time previously – but until a bed could be arranged she was sent home and told she would be contacted by the North Islington Crisis Team for further support.

But when Ms Cockerton contacted Ms O’Connor the following day, she refused the team’s offer of help, before calming down and agreeing to a meeting the following day. 

Less than three hours later she jumped onto the tracks.

The inquest heard she was taken to the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, but died six days later. 

Recording a verdict of suicide, coroner Dr Andrew Reid said: “Although she used words such as ‘it’s too late’ and expressed scepticism of the team, critical of the care received which didn’t prevent his death in relation to mental health treatment, she calmed down and agreed to meet the next day. Some time after that telephone conversation she travelled to Archway Tube station.”

Kieran had previously been sectioned in the Whittington Hospital, Archway, and later at St Luke’s in Muswell Hill. In his case, two weeks before his death, Ms O’Connor raised concerns with mental health staff, but was told he was not a danger.

A social worker who dealt regularly with Kieran said: “He felt stigmatised by his illness. He felt he didn’t want to take medication for the rest of his life.”

‘I dream of you’ – A mother’s agony...

CATHY O’Connor only ever spoke publicly twice about the course of events that led to her son’s final breakdown and death at the hands of a police sniper. 

Once, briefly, during an inquest at St Pancras Coroner’s Court. She was trembling, whispering, struggling with the enormity and detail of the occasion. After confirming her son Kieran’s name, she collapsed, falling to the floor in the witness box. There was nobody in the chapel courtroom that day whose stomach did not turn at her upset as she was helped to her feet. Hardened television reporters looked away.

The second time, months later, she contacted the New Journal and I went to her home in Archway where we sat with one of her friends and talked for an hour.

There have been some terrible, stomach-churning events in Camden and Islington’s recent history – needless teenage murders, serial killers butchering bodies, avoidable deaths and tragedy. But Ms O’Connor recounted a most harrowing story of how the son she had devoted every strained effort to help had become surrounded and scared.

At one point behind the barricades at their home he tried to tie her up. She pleaded with him as police officers accumulated outside and the siege, as it had undoubtedly become, escalated. She listened as Kieran predicted his own imminent death. It is hard for anybody to imagine what those hours inside that Cathcart Hill flat must have been like. 

During our interview, tears streamed down her cheeks but she insisted I should stay. She wanted people to know her hurt. 

In another room, everything which was once Kieran’s lay untouched, even his worn toothbrush. She told how she had been unequipped – who wouldn’t be? – to soothe her son’s schizophrenia, his unpredictability too much for one woman to deal with, as she often felt, on her own. 

She certainly persevered, bravely, but ultimately felt let down by the services she turned to. 

In a poem for her son, she wrote how the scars of the siege of Cathcart Hill could hardly be healed.

“When I sleep it’s of you I dream, funny thoughts as it may seem,” she wrote. “When I look at your photograph, even then you seem to make me laugh. The hurt I feel deep inside is harder to heal and harder to hide.”

RICHARD OSLEY