A woman has said her own brother is now dead to her after he was convicted of her husband’s killing.
In an exclusive interview with this paper, mother-of-seven Elizabeth Cash said she can never forgive her brother Andy - after he was found guilty of her husband John Cash’s killing earlier this week.
On Tuesday Andy Cash, who was on trial for murder, was found guilty of the manslaughter of his brother-in-law John ‘Johnny’ Cash (40) at Hebron Road, Kilkenny City, on May 3rd, 2022.
Speaking from her home following the verdict Elizabeth (42) said she can never forgive her brother, and says she never wants to see him again.
READ MORE: Kilkenny man guilty of manslaughter of brother-in-law he believed had affair with his wife
“He showed no remorse for me, for my husband, for my children. So I could never ever forgive and I could never ever say that he’s my brother.
“He’s dead to me,” she said.
“If Andy died I wouldn’t even go to his funeral and that’s the honest truth. That’s the way I feel because he betrayed me and my children.”
Andy Cash took the stand in his own trial which heard how he believed that his wife had “cheated” on him in the past with John Cash, and that he was “out of his head on tablets” on the day of the killing.
During the trial, Andy agreed with the prosecuting counsel that he gave John Cash "a good thumping" while he was on the ground but denied stabbing him, telling the court that John Cash had "ducked" out of the knife's way.
Speaking today Elizabeth, who witnessed the entire ordeal, told how she saw her husband drop to the ground before he said what would be his final words to her.
“When my husband was on the ground and he was dying he told me that he couldn’t breathe.
“His lungs were filling up. There were people there that gave me a bottle of coke and I used it to wet his lips but he didn’t drink it.
“Then the paramedics and the gardai came and I was pushed out of the way while they worked on him. When we went to the hospital I didn’t realise that he was already dead before he got there,” she said.
Elizabeth told this paper that she was disappointed with the verdict.
“I was disappointed by the verdict. Everything was there, there’s CCTV footage, the knife that was there, the guards that came on the scene and caught him on the scene.
“I was there, my 15 year old daughter was there and we gave our evidence in the witness box.
“We got manslaughter for something that was done in broad daylight.”
Elizabeth said she, her husband and her daughter were going shopping when the incident happened in the middle of the street.
“We were going into Aldis to get a bit of shopping and we were going to get the 2 o'clock train up to Dublin because he wanted to see a solicitor about his licence and then he wanted to go see his sister. Sadly it didn’t work out that way.”
Elizabeth, who says she’s now doing her best to raise her kids amid the horror they are going through, says she now fears for her own safety following the incident.
“I’m afraid of my life. I am living in fear.
“I am very very hurt. To do something like that to me, to leave me with no husband, no father for the kids, and he had four grandsons and there's more grandkids on the way since he passed.
“I feel that my life is empty. He’s the first man, the only man that I ever loved and the only man that I was ever with.
“He (Andy) just ruined my whole life really.”
Elizabeth says she did her best to try and save her husband, and says the memory of seeing him die on the ground stays with her to this day.
“I was there for the whole thing. I was trying to save him and my 15 year old daughter was there. She’s with her partner now expecting a baby herself.
“She went through all of that.
“The memory will never leave me. Sometimes I wake up from nightmares and I’m sweating. I could be awake for hours before I go back to sleep.
“I could be walking the floors all night thinking is he going to come back to me one more time.
“My daughter says the same thing. It never leaves her; she keeps getting flashbacks and has panic attacks.
“We’re all just broken hearted for him being gone. He was a loving husband and father to his kids. He was so proud of his daughters and the women they became,” she said.
Paying tribute to her husband Elizabeth said he was a hard worker - and being in a now almost empty home that has so many memories of him is very difficult.
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“Everybody loved him. He was jolly going, he was always in good old form before his mother passed.
“He’d loads of friends. He would just light up a room when you walk in. “My husband adored his kids and he didn’t want to go. It wasn’t his time. He was just a young man of 40 years of age.
“I have to get out of this house. Everywhere I see him in the house.
“He used to be down fiddling at things and out in the back garden. He’d love doing things. He was an outside man and was always doing work.”
Elizabeth also addressed the allegation that came up in the trial that her husband had had an affair with Andy Cash’s wife.
“10 years ago my husband went down to the pub and Andy's wife was in the pub.
“Ever since that he just had that bitterness against my husband. My husband swore to me in the chapel that he hadn’t got anything to do with his wife.
“But that was in Andy’s head. My husband wasn't with her but even if he was that still doesn’t mean you kill somebody.
“I never thought it would get that serious. I never thought he’d use a knife to be honest.”
“What did he achieve by doing it? He broke me and my kids and left them without a father,” she said.
Elizabeth said she ultimately feels let down by the verdict.
“I feel very let down by the verdict. We were all let down.
“I have to get on now with my life and raise the kids. It’s a struggle to get by every day. I
“We’re just getting by. We’re struggling but life goes on,” she said.
Elizabeth said she doesn’t want to see her brother ever again - and ultimately does not care what his fate is.
“I don't want to see Andy at all. I’d have too much to say, I’d prefer not to see him.
“Even if he apologised it would mean nothing. I mean why now?
“The harm has been done and it can’t bring back my husband.
“I have to carry this weight on my shoulders. I have to keep alive. I am the kids' protector. It’s very hard,” she said.
“To be honest I couldn't care where Andy Cash goes. It wouldn't bother me what happened Andy.
“He didn’t care about me, my kids and my grandchildren. I should be ashamed to call him my brother to be honest,” she said.
During his trial Andy Cash said that while John Cash was on the ground he heard a comment that made him "get a rush of anger" and that he "lost control".
The jury heard evidence that John Cash went into cardiac arrest after the attack and a postmortem examination found he had sustained two stab wounds, with the cause of death recorded as an eight-millimetre-deep wound to the left of his chest, penetrating the heart.
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