Man charged with axe murders of wife and grandchildren 'has brain tumour'

Published on Wednesday 2 July 2008 22:27

A MAN accused of murdering his grandchildren and his Scottish wife with an axe had recently been diagnosed with a brain tumour, his family said yesterday.

John Walsh, 69, originally from Northern Ireland, appeared in court in Australia earlier this week charged with the horrific triple murder.

He was accused of killing his wife Jean, 52, grandson Kevin, seven, and granddaughter Jaime, five. He was also accused of badly wounding his 31-year-old daughter, Shelley.

Mrs Walsh's sister, Christina Boswell, of Aberdeen, revealed that Walsh had recently learned he did not have long to live.

She said the news had "changed him" from a fun-loving character. Neighbours in Australia said the retired aircraft painter had been withdrawn since the suicide of his son four years ago.

Shelley Walsh, a police officer, discovered the bodies of her mother and her children when she returned to her parents' home in Cowra, New South Wales, after work on Monday.

According to reports, John Walsh was playing computer games on his own when his daughter arrived home, and he then attacked her with an axe.

Ms Walsh fled to a neighbour's home, bleeding from a deep gash in her head.

She is still in hospital after undergoing surgery for a fractured skull, but had managed to call family in Scotland.

Mrs Boswell said her niece was in a "terrible state" when she called.

She said: "She has lost her whole family – her mother, who was her best friend, her two babies and now her father, who she adored.

"She is a solid girl, and John is only about 5ft tall, but she said that when she wrestled with him he had the strength of ten animals."

Mrs Boswell, 59, described Walsh as a "loving and caring husband" with a good sense of humour.

She added: "He adored his family and thought the world of my sister."

She believes the suicide of the couple's 24-year-old son Scott may have been on Walsh's mind. News of his illness also had a significant effect on him, she said.

Mrs Boswell plans to visit Australia for the court case, after which she has been told the victims' bodies will be released.

She said: "I feel I need to be there for Shelley's sake."

Walsh was arrested at a motel in the town of Hay, about 258 miles away, six hours after the attack. In court, he did not enter a plea and was held in custody on three charges of murder and one of attempted murder.

He will return to court on Monday and faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Walsh and his wife reportedly looked after their grandchildren on a regular basis while their daughter went to work.

Andrew Scipione, New South Wales police commissioner, said it was too early to say what led to the killings.

He added: "We're all at a bit of a loss (but] we will get to the bottom of it."

Of the injured mother, he said: "I'm not sure it's fully hit home."

Shelley's brother Scott Walsh, a former naval officer, died in 2002 shortly after becoming an investigator in the military police. He had served in East Timor as a peacekeeper in 2001 and received a full military funeral.

His death devastated his father who, according to locals, became a recluse.

Paddy O'Donnell, a professor of psychology at Glasgow University, said a brain tumour could cause delusions but depression was a more likely cause of the incident.

He said: "Psychotic depression is a very severe form of depression which could have been exacerbated or brought on by age-related decline.

"There is maybe a genetic vulnerability, with the son having (taken his own life].

"Someone with psychotic depression could become paranoid or form the view that life isn't worth living, and if it is not worth living for them, it's not worth living for the children either.

"It may feel to them as if they are relieving the children of the burden of having to face life," Mr O'Donnell said.

He said there had been previous cases of parents killing their children and themselves because of psychotic depression.

The lively, warm and beautiful lady who dreamed of a better life

FOR Jean Boswell, also known as Mabel, it was the start of a new life on the other side of the world.

At the age of 16 she left Aberdeen to join one of her seven siblings, her elder sister Isabel, in Australia.

She found a job at a nursery through which she met John Walsh, a labourer 15 years her senior.

They settled in Sydney and had three children together before the family moved to Cowra ten years ago, after he retired as an aircraft painter.

Her siblings had not seen the 52-year-old for several years but will travel to Australia in the next five weeks, when her body is expected to be released.

Friends in Australia say she was known as a lively Scottish lady who loved to chat.

Walsh, from Northern Ireland, served in the British Army, in the engineers corps, and worked in the Christmas Islands, building towers for the atomic bombs there.

He returned to England, where his family had moved to find work, but headed to Australia with friends.

His first job in Australia was at a paint manufacturing company, where he was known by his friends as the "joking Irishman" and for being accident-prone.

A friend said: "He split his sternum once when he fell off a roof. The boys used to joke how he had his own coffee cup over at Concord (hospital].

"No matter what would happen, (his wife] used to say 'everything is OK'.

"She was a really warm and beautiful character."

When their daughter joined the police force, the accused was said to be "the proudest dad on the block". He was also proud when his son followed in his footsteps by joining up in the armed forces. A close friend said he had never known Walsh to be violent in the 30 years he knew him.

However, the friend, who did not wish to be identified, said he noticed Walsh took a downward spiral after his son Scott's tragic death in 2002.

He said: "That's when we stopped talking.

"He no longer took my calls and became withdrawn."