It is hard to fathom the anguish of a mother who for years had to deal with a violent, abusive, often out of control son whom she tried her best to help. In the end, he murdered her and his partner.
Karen McClean-Flanagan, aged 50, was fatally stabbed at her home in Newtownabbey in March 2021. Her son Kenneth then stabbed to death his 30-year-old partner Stacey Knell. The double murderer then committed suicide.
An inquest into the deaths is due to take place in June. As part of the inquest, the coroner will consider two domestic homicide reviews published more than three years ago.
While the reviews did not reveal the names of those killed or the perpetrator, it is obvious the author, former PSNI Detective Superintendent Anne Marks, was referring to Karen and Stacey.
They reveal how Kenneth McClean-Flanagan was flagged as a high-risk domestic abuser in relation to his mother and another family member as early as 2017 and detail a series of system failures that could have led to greater scrutiny of the 26-year-old in the months leading up to the murders.
This increased awareness could potentially have led to agencies, including the police, health trusts, social services and the prison service, providing more protection for the victims, the reviews found. Broadly, a lack of communication and coordination and follow ups on red flag incidents were cited among the reasons for the failures.
But it also emerged that a month before Karen’s murder police brought McClean-Flanagan to his mother’s home despite knowing he was “a high risk perpetrator of domestic abuse towards her”. She was living with and attempting to care for a younger child, aged nine when her mother was murdered.
Kenneth McClean-Flanagan
A month earlier, police returned two knives to McClean-Flanagan following a conviction for possession of a blade in a public place. Police could not definitively say whether either of these knives was used in the murders.
It was Stacey’s deeply tragic misfortune to have met and started a relationship with McClean-Flanagan just a year before the murders.
The mother-of-one was drawn into the dark world where Karen had been living for many years. For a short six-week period while McClean-Flanagan was behind bars, the two women even lived in Karen’s home together with their children.
McClean-Flanagan was committed to prison eight times during that year, including one period lasting five months. A few months before her murder, he tried to choke Stacey, a case of non-fatal strangulation. She did not report the attack.
Former PSNI Detective Superintendent Anne Marks
But the review reveals how on one occasion police were called to her home and McClean-Flanagan answered the door. He alleged he had been threatened with a knife by an unknown person and referred to Stacey as his girlfriend.
McClean-Flanagan was in the police system as a ‘high-risk’ domestic abuser, there was a reference to a knife and he appeared to be under “the influence of drugs and experiencing a paranoid episode”. Police do not appear to have taken further action to check on the welfare of Stacey or her child, or even establish whether they were in the house.
None of the multiple agencies helping Stacey long before she met McClean-Flanagan knew she was having a relationship with such a dangerous individual. However, it was flagged she was in a relationship with a “prisoner”.
“(Stacey) was trapped in a relationship with (Kenneth). (Kenneth) was controlling, coercive and violent, and he would not allow her to leave,” the review found based on interviews with those close to the murdered young woman. Pseudonyms were used in the review.
From a young age, McClean-Flanagan, an abuser of drink and drugs, “displayed repeated violent, abusive, coercive, and controlling behaviours towards his mother and others”.
But he was never convicted of serious assault in a domestic setting, which would have seen him come under the public protection arrangements, Northern Ireland (PPANI), and therefore much closer scrutiny, particularly from the police.
However, he remained from 2017 still ‘high risk’ to perpetrate domestic abuse under a different multi-agency assessment.
He had multiple non-molestation orders out against him in relation to another family member. Four files were passed to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) in relation to Karen, with one conviction.
On one occasion, Karen telephoned police to report McClean-Flanagan being in her home. While on the call, she complained that she could not breathe.
A week later she informed an attending officer that on the evening the incident occurred Thomas had her in a head lock. She had complained at various points about her son’s presence at her home.
Yet, he was released by prison authorities to the same home in 2020, the review found. Police brought McClean-Flanagan to the house a month before the murders.
Housing options were limited due to his aggression and abusive behaviour toward housing and hostel staff.
“Despite her life experiences, (Karen) did everything she could to protect her relationship with her son,” the review, using pseudonyms, concluded based on interviews with those close to Karen.
“For example, during (Kenneth’s) extended periods of absence she would seek him out to check on his welfare and visit him while in prison custody
“As a mother, (Karen) also felt shame, even a sense of guilt about her son’s life choices and behaviours, evident when she spoke of her embarrassment following one of many incidents police had attended.”
The report added: “Despite her poor health and Thomas’s violent and abusive behaviours, it was (Karen) who was expected to protect her youngest child and herself; it was (Karen) who was expected to keep (Kenneth) out of the home; and it was (Karen) who was expected to pursue matters through the criminal justice system.
“This was not her responsibility, or at least not hers alone.”