All we want is an inquest to get answers. We've been left living in torment.
In September 2022, Tom Murphy — a 42-year-old Irish father of two who had built a quiet life working in telecommunications across the UK — was stabbed 34 times in a Manchester shared house by a housemate who believed a broken plate justified the act. His killer received a hospital order rather than a prison sentence, and the family was subsequently denied an inquest, leaving them without the formal accounting that violent death would seem to demand. Two years on, the Murphy family in Limerick continues to press for answers through solicitors, elected representatives, and diplomatic channels — a reminder that justice, when it arrives in unfamiliar forms, can feel to the bereaved like no justice at all.
- A Limerick family has spent two years unable to grieve fully, denied an inquest after their brother was stabbed 34 times in what a court accepted as a manslaughter driven by paranoid schizophrenia.
- The attacker, Stephen Owusu, had previously threatened his mother and father with violence and was known to hear voices — yet remained unsupervised in shared housing where he met Tom Murphy.
- A hospital order instead of a prison sentence, and the subsequent refusal to hold an inquest, has left the family feeling that both the legal system and the care system failed Tom before and after his death.
- Irish TD Niall Collins has formally asked the Tanaiste to engage UK authorities through diplomatic channels, drawing parallels to the Nottingham attacks case where similar mental health circumstances sparked a national BBC investigation.
- The family's demand is focused and specific: an inquest — not a reversal of the verdict, but a formal space in which questions about systemic failures can finally be asked and answered.
Tom Murphy had spent more than twenty years working in telecommunications across the United Kingdom, a quiet and steady life that ended in September 2022 when he was stabbed 34 times in a shared rental house in Manchester. His killer, Stephen Owusu, was 23 years old and believed the attack was warranted over a broken plate. In October 2023, a court accepted a plea of manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility — paranoid schizophrenia — and imposed a hospital order, sending Owusu to a secure psychiatric facility indefinitely rather than to prison. A week later, the family learned there would be no inquest.
For Tom's brother Darragh and the rest of the Limerick family, the absence of an inquest has become the wound within the wound. During the criminal proceedings, police had asked them to be patient, assuring them that an inquest would provide the fuller picture they needed. That promise was not kept. A solicitor was hired to request a review of the decision; the request was refused. "All we want is an inquest to get answers," Darragh said. "We've been left living in torment."
What haunts the family is not only the verdict but what the case reveals about the systems that came before it. Court documents showed that Owusu had previously attacked his mother, threatened her with a knife, and turned violent toward his father — each time drawing a police response, each time returning to the community. He was hearing voices he believed were communicating with each other. Despite this documented history, he was permitted to rent a room in a shared house in Manchester. Tom Murphy moved into that same house. Two months later, he was dead. Tom had called his mother shortly before his death — on the day Queen Elizabeth II died, a date Darragh remembers precisely — and mentioned that Owusu had directed a racial slur at him.
The family draws a direct parallel to the Nottingham attacks of June 2023, in which Valdo Calocane killed three people and similarly received a hospital order after a manslaughter plea. A BBC Panorama investigation scrutinised the mental health care Calocane had received in the years prior. The Murphy family believes Tom's case deserves the same scrutiny. Local TD Niall Collins has written to Tanaiste Micheal Martin asking him to engage the UK Government through the Irish Ambassador and Consular Service. "Tom Murphy was stabbed 34 times," Collins said. "The least the Murphy family deserve is an inquest into Tom's terrible death."
The family does not accept the manslaughter verdict and believes Owusu should be serving time in a conventional prison. But their immediate demand is narrower and more procedural: a formal inquest, a room in which questions can be asked, a mechanism through which the failures of care and oversight that preceded Tom's death might finally be examined. Until that happens, they wait — for diplomatic intervention, for a change in the UK's position, for some form of accounting that matches the scale of what they lost.
Tom Murphy was a father of two who had spent more than two decades working in telecommunications across the UK. In September 2022, he was stabbed 34 times with a kitchen knife in a shared rental house in Manchester. His killer was Stephen Owusu, a 23-year-old man who believed the attack was justified over a broken plate.
Two years later, Murphy's family in Limerick remains without answers. The Crown Prosecution Service accepted a plea of manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility—paranoid schizophrenia—rather than pursuing a murder charge. A judge imposed a hospital order on Owusu, sending him to a secure psychiatric facility indefinitely instead of prison. A week after that October 2023 court decision, the family learned there would be no inquest into Murphy's death. In the UK system, inquests are typically held when someone dies suddenly, under unexplained circumstances, or violently. By that standard, Murphy's case seemed to warrant one. The family disagreed with the decision and hired a solicitor to request a review. That request was refused.
Darragh Murphy, Tom's younger brother, describes the family's state as one of "torment." In the months after Tom's death, police told the family they could not discuss details without risking media coverage that might prejudice the case. When the family asked why Owusu had killed their brother, they were given a single answer: a broken plate. They were assured that an inquest would provide the fuller picture they desperately wanted. That promise never materialized. "All we want is an inquest to get answers," Darragh said. "We've been left living in torment."
What troubles the family most is not simply the verdict itself, but what it reveals about the systems that preceded it. Court documents showed that Owusu had previously tried to attack his mother, then threatened to kill her while holding a knife. Police responded and referred him to a local crime diversion scheme. Later, he turned violent toward his father and was cautioned by officers. Despite these incidents, despite hearing voices he believed were "talking to each other," Owusu remained free in the community. He rented a room in a four-bedroom shared house in Manchester. That is where he met Tom Murphy. Two months later, he killed him.
Tom had called his mother shortly before his death. Darragh remembers the date precisely—it was the day Queen Elizabeth II died. Tom mentioned concerns about his housemate, noting that Owusu had directed a racial slur at him. The family now questions how someone with Owusu's documented history of violence and mental health crisis was permitted to live unsupervised in shared housing. They draw parallels to the Nottingham attacks of June 2023, in which Valdo Calocane killed three people. Like Owusu, Calocane was given a hospital order after pleading manslaughter by diminished responsibility. A BBC Panorama investigation later examined Calocane's mental health history and the care—or lack thereof—he received in the years before the attacks.
Local TD Niall Collins has written to Tanaiste Micheal Martin, asking him to engage with the UK Government through the Irish Ambassador and Consular Service to push for an inquest. "In Ireland, inquests are held in cases of sudden, unexplained or violent death," Collins said. "Tom Murphy was stabbed 34 times. The least the Murphy family deserve is an inquest into Tom's terrible death, where they can ask the questions that remain to be answered and hopefully get some small bit of closure."
The family does not accept the manslaughter verdict. They believe Owusu should serve time in a conventional prison rather than a hospital. "It would be the only thing that would give us comfort to think that the youngster would be amongst his own," Darragh said. For now, they wait—for political intervention, for a change in the UK's decision, for some mechanism that will finally allow them to ask the questions they have carried since September 2022. The anger at being failed by authorities runs deep. An inquest, they believe, is the minimum they are owed.
Notable Quotes
The family questions how someone with documented violence and mental health crisis was permitted to live unsupervised in shared housing— Darragh Murphy, Tom's brother
Tom Murphy was stabbed 34 times. The least the Murphy family deserve is an inquest into Tom's terrible death, where they can ask the questions that remain to be answered— TD Niall Collins
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does the family feel an inquest is so crucial when the court case is already finished?
Because a trial answers one question—guilty or not guilty. An inquest answers the others. It's a public hearing where the family can ask why the system allowed this man to live freely despite his history, why no one intervened, whether Tom's death was preventable.
But the man was convicted. He's in a hospital now. Isn't that closure?
Not for them. He's not in prison. And more importantly, they still don't know the full picture of what happened before that day—what warnings were missed, what decisions were made that put Tom in that house with that person.
The court said he had diminished responsibility because of schizophrenia. Doesn't that explain it?
It explains the legal verdict. It doesn't explain why someone hearing voices and with a history of threatening his own mother with a knife was allowed to rent a room in a shared house. That's what they want examined publicly.
What's the difference between what they want and what they got?
They got a verdict. They want accountability—not just for Owusu, but for the systems that failed to protect Tom. An inquest would examine all of that on the record.
Is there any chance they'll get it?
That's why the local politician is now asking the Irish government to pressure the UK through diplomatic channels. Right now, the answer is no. But the family isn't stopping.