Double murderer Frank McCann had been bragging to inmates at Dublin’s Arbour Hill prison that he was about to be released following his latest parole hearing.
However, last Sunday he barricaded himself into his cell after learning that his path to freedom is not going to be as straightforward as he thought.
It is nearly 30 years since McCann set fire to his Rathfarnham house, killing his wife Esther and 18-month-old Jessica, whom they had fostered and were about to adopt.
In September 1992, McCann knew that a secret from his past as a swimming coach was about to become known to his family. He knew this because authorities had performed background checks on him, as well as his wife, as part of their application to adopt toddler Jessica.
The fact that he had fathered a child with a 17-year-old girl with special needs was about to become known so, in a bid to prevent the truth from emerging, McCann decided to kill Esther and Jessica.
Frank McCann is led from court after being found guilty of the 1992 murders of Esther and Jessica. Photo: Independent Newspapers Ireland
Esther (36) knew nothing about it, or of the sex abuse scandals that were about to unravel about her husband’s two swimming-coach friends, George Gibney and Derry O’Rourke, who were charged with offences against young swimming club members.
Gibney fled the country and O’Rourke was convicted.
The girl that Frank and Esther planned to adopt was the daughter of Frank’s own adopted sister.
But Esther noticed delays in the adoption application, unaware that concerns about Frank’s secret past were reported to the Adoption Board by someone known to the teenager he had fathered the child with.
When they finally got an appointment with the authorities on the adoption, Frank knew he was about to be exposed. He set about killing Esther and Jessica.
On September 4, 1992, he set up a gas cylinder and a blowtorch in the house on Butterfield Avenue and went to work in his Blessington pub.
Esther and Jessica died in the blaze, with Frank playing the distraught husband when he arrived back having been alerted to the emergency.
Esther’s family believe this was Frank’s third or fourth attempt to kill her and Jessica.
Prior to the fire, Esther woke one night to find the electric blanket on fire. On another occasion, there was a gas leak at the house. There was also the time when her car brakes failed.
McCann was arrested and charged in April 1993. His first trial was suspended when he tried to set fire to himself with a lighter in the court.
The second trial, in 1996, led to him being found guilty and sentenced to two concurrent life sentences for the murders.
McCann has largely been a model prisoner, and earned such privileges as working in the gardens and the officers’ quarters in Arbour Hill.
In 2019, he was allowed to attend a computer course in Ballyfermot. He would get a bus on his own, to and from the college, and was trusted to return to his cell.
Esther McCann and 18-month-old Jessica were killed by Frank McCann in 1992.
McCann was on the road to being released, although Esther’s family has always claimed he remains a danger and should stay behind bars.
The former publican had recently been through his sixth parole hearing and, having tasted life outside the prison and been trusted to work in areas of responsibility, he started telling others that he would soon be out for good.
“He was bragging about it – he was full sure it was only a matter of time,” said one source.
However, his impending release was recently a topic of discussion on Joe Duffy’s Liveline show on RTÉ radio. Even McCann’s own family went on air and said he should stay locked up for what he did.
McCann started to sense the heat of the spotlight. Then, on Wednesday of last week, he was told that he would not be walking out the gate.
He was informed that, at some stage in the future when Covid rules allowed, he would instead be transferred to the Progression Unit in Mountjoy, where he would spend nine months undergoing outstanding psychological assessment, something he has hated and resisted in the past.
“Most prisoners would accept it as part of the process and just get on with it. It would be another step towards freedom, but it seems to have been a tipping point for McCann,” the source explained.
Last Sunday evening, prison officers looked into McCann’s cell through the peephole in the door but could not see him.
He had blocked the door with furniture from the cell, and refused to answer when called upon.
It took prison officers around 15 minutes to gain access to the cell and they eventually found McCann in a corner, in what was described as a distressed state.
As a result of his actions, he has lost some of his privileges until he can be assessed. It’s a backwards step for him.
But why would a man so close to freedom sabotage it?
It’s difficult to get inside the mind of a complex killer, but there is speculation that a change in the parole process, which is about to come into effect, could have consequences for McCann. This pushed him over the edge.
Under the current system, a parole board meets to discuss a prisoner’s situation, level of engagement, and progress. The board then makes a recommendation to the Minister for Justice, who has the ultimate say in when or how an inmate will be released.
But that system is about to be replaced by a statutory body which will act independently of the minister. The families of victims will have stronger rights to have their voices heard, and have access to free legal representation.
The new body is due to come into effect before the end of this year, and the feeling among those who know Frank McCann is that he thought he would be back in the outside world by then. The new statutory body represents a potential barrier to him.
Now, instead of seeing the finish line, McCann realises he has further to run and more hurdles to jump. It seems relentless to him.
The fact that members of his own family have disowned him so publicly, and the sniggering of fellow inmates after his premature bragging, have given him food for thought also.
Esther McCann would have been 65 last Monday. On that day, her sister Marian – who has long campaigned that her killer should stay behind bars – brought flowers to her and Jessica’s grave. She thought about where they would be in life together, had it not been for such a cruel act.
“Judge Paul Carney described Frank McCann as a consummate actor in the past, and his cell tantrum was not unexpected,” Marian told the Irish Independent.
“Hopefully the statutory status of the new parole board will give us a face-to-face opportunity to represent Esther and Jessica, and to voice our fears at McCann’s release,” she added.
