'I showed them no mercy'

by Emma Griffiths
BBC News website, London

The bodies were found in the flat in Wembley

Staff at Central Middlesex Hospital were among the first to get wind that something awful had happened at Veadon McEwan's ninth-floor flat in November 2004.

He had called his brother, after swallowing paracetamol and alcohol, to ask him to take him to hospital.

But disturbed by the conversation, his brother called ahead to the hospital to say he thought McEwan's wife and stepchildren might be dead.

The trial heard McEwan had told his brother: "I showed them no mercy."

When police officers arrived at the tower block in Wembley, north-west London, in the early hours of 9 November 2004, they found three bodies.

McEwan's wife Beverly, 43, and her six-year-old son Junior had been stabbed repeatedly in the living room. Beverly's daughter Donna, 15, had been strangled in her bed.

What we were dealing with was not a man who was mentally ill, but a man who was obsessively jealous and prone to fits of rage DI Steve Smith

The family had been living at the flat since 1999. At the time of the killing a neighbour described Beverly as "a really nice lady", whose son had played with her own little boy.

Who was killed first, or why McEwan chose to attack his stepchildren, the police never found out.

It was suggested by his defence that he had been suffering from a severe mental disorder at the time of the killing.

But detectives believe the 52-year-old electrician was a violent, controlling man who had convinced himself his wife was having affairs and murdered her in a jealous rage.

Det Insp Steve Smith told the BBC News website: "Our (medical) expert said as far as he was concerned, he didn't find any evidence that Veadon McEwan was suffering from mental illness which could have substantially impaired his responsibility.

McEwan had a history of violent behaviour

"What came out at trial, and what I think the jury fully accepted - hence the unanimous verdict - was what we were dealing with was not a man who was mentally ill, but a man who was obsessively jealous and prone to fits of rage and explosions of anger."

"He believed, although we found no evidence of it, that his wife was seeing other men. What motivated him to kill the children? I really don't have any idea."

McEwan had a history of domestic violence towards his previous two wives - one had her wrist broken, he tried to smother the other with a cushion and threatened her with a knife. He already had a previous conviction for common assault.

Once the bodies of Mrs McEwan and her children had been found, police arrested McEwan on his hospital bed.

'No remorse'

A search of the flat found stained clothing hidden in a cupboard which linked him to the killings and a suitcase filled with his clothes in the main bedroom.

A note was later found in his brother's possession, thought to have been written by McEwan, effectively asking for forgiveness.

But once arrested, he refused to help police, never discussed what happened that day and showed "no remorse", said Det Insp Smith, of the Metropolitan Police's Specialist Crime Directorate.

They could not even be sure when the family was killed, but think it was probably two days earlier.

"The shocking aspect was the death of the two children, which appeared to be completely senseless."

McEwan was convicted of the three murders at Croydon Crown Court on 13 July.