'Pure evil' stepmother Tegan McGhee jailed for life for murder of boy (4) in Limerick
Eoin Reynolds
The "evil" stepmother who murdered a four-year-old boy in her care can now be named as 32-year-old Tegan McGhee, after a judge lifted an order preventing publication of her identity.
Mr Justice Paul McDermott on Wednesday sentenced McGhee, of no fixed abode, to life imprisonment for the murder of Mason O'Connell Conway at a house she was renting with the boy's father in Limerick City on March 16th, 2021.
The child's father, John Paul O'Connell (36), was previously sentenced to seven years in prison having pleaded guilty to endangerment, neglect and impeding McGhee's apprehension or prosecution, knowing or believing she had murdered his son.
Mason (4) was found with serious injuries at a house in Limerick City on March 13th, 2021. He was pronounced dead three days later.
Mr Justice McDermott also sentenced McGhee to four years and six months for two counts of child cruelty in the weeks and months leading up to the murder. The child cruelty sentences will run concurrently with the life sentence.
Mr Justice McDermott said there was evidence that the child had been deliberately isolated for weeks before the murder and in particular for the last four days of his life.
During that time he was abused by his father and stepmother, who "continued to mete out" what they must have known were disproportionate and damaging punishments to the child.
They deceived family and friends who wanted to see Mason and, knowing that McGhee had inflicted fatal wounds on the child, they tried to deceive medical professionals about what had been happening. The judge described the abuse as an "appalling breach of trust" that had caused damage to the child, his mother and the extended family.
Mr Justice McDermott commended the child's mother, Elizabeth Conway, for her "enormous courage" in delivering her victim impact statement at a hearing earlier this week with "poise and dignity".
As McGhee was being led away to the cell area to begin her life sentence, a friend of the Conway family shouted: "I hope you rot in hell."
Speaking outside court, Ms Conway said nothing will ever bring her son back. "The last five years have been a living hell, and then hearing what my poor little man dealt with in the days, weeks and months leading up to this death - I have never heard so much evil in all my life."
She said her worst nightmare came true "in the worst way possible".
She said two "very evil people" robbed her "innocent baby" of his life. "Mason was such a loving, caring, clever little child who brought so much love and happiness into our lives... Mason was a typical four-year-old little boy who loved cars, bikes, school, playing with his siblings and friends and being in his mammy's house."
"Mason wasn't just my son, he was my everything." She said she will never forgive herself for trusting McGhee and O'Connell to look after her son.
"I couldn't wait to watch Mason growing up, hitting his milestones, but unfortunately I will never see him alive again."
She said McGhee and O'Connell would have gotten away with their lies but for the garda investigation.
She added: "There is nothing I miss more than knowing my kids were with me safe and sound. Our family is forever broken, nothing is or ever will be the same, but Mason, my boy, you will never be forgotten by the ones who loved you... love you forever my boy, thank you for the honour of being your mother."
Publication of McGhee and O'Connell's identities had been prevented by a court order which Mr Justice McDermott altered today.
McGhee's trial last year heard that on March 13th, 2021, the child's father phoned emergency services, saying his son had fallen from the top bunk of his bed one hour earlier and could not be roused.
When paramedics arrived they found the boy lying on the floor of his bedroom, unresponsive. They rushed him to hospital and despite emergency intervention and surgery, he did not recover.
Medical professionals noted numerous bruises of various ages all over the child's face, head, torso and legs that were indicative of non-accidental injuries or abuse.
The father explained the injuries by saying that his son was the "the clumsiest child ever" and that he had run into a door or been hurt playing football.
However, it emerged during McGhee's trial that he had been subjected to physical abuse for weeks and spent four days grounded in his room before his stepmother shook him and struck his head off the floor.
He had also suffered a blunt force injury to his abdomen that lacerated his liver. A pathologist found that either injury to the head or the liver would have caused death on their own.
The defendant claimed that the boy was a "bold cheeky child" and often had to be grounded. When grounded, he was not allowed to leave his room other than to go to the toilet and had to sit on the floor, never his bed.
The defendant told gardai that on the day the boy suffered his fatal injuries, she "snapped" and recalled "shaking him and screaming at him to behave" before he fell on the floor.
Mother's statement
In her statement earlier this week, Elizabeth Conway said her son was born in early 2016, a "fine, healthy little boy". She described him as a "clever little child who brought so much love and happiness into all our lives".
When his sister played peekaboo with him or tickled him, he would laugh, making everyone else laugh.
"He had the biggest smile and the most beautiful brown eyes. He was a perfect little boy," she said. When he potty trained himself at just 18 months, he felt he was a "little man" and would insist on walking instead of going in his buggy.
He adored his younger siblings and would insist on helping to care for them and would kiss and cuddle them, she said.
One of Ms Conway's treasured possessions is a video of her son singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to his little sister. "He was such a caring little boy," she said.
When he saw a homeless man sitting on the ground, he asked his mother to give the man a pizza and later that night he worried about him and sought assurance from his mother that he would be "okay".
After receiving the "worst phone call any mother could get," Ms Conway recalled being in hospital with the boy's father and the defendant when doctors came to say there was nothing they could do.
She made the "hardest decision a mother could make" to turn her son's life support off but before that happened, O'Connell and McGhee asked to be left alone with him.
She said: "I can only imagine what they were saying to my poor child's lifeless body."
After the life support machine was switched off, she recalled watching her "beautiful little child's heartbeat go down and down" until he flatlined and she begged doctors to turn the machine back on.
She planned the funeral herself and recalled how the child's father and stepmother "stood in God's holy house and said how much they loved him and that he was a superhero."
She said his life was taken by "pure evil", by someone her son "loved and trusted".
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