‘The justice system and the way it is set up re-traumatises, re-victimises the family every time they have to go through this process’

THE brother of a young mum murdered along with her two daughters said he feels sympathy for the family of those killed in the firebomb attack in Edenderry.

John Whelan said “it brought it all back” when he heard about the tragic deaths of four-year-old Tadgh Farrell and his ­grandaunt Mary Holt, 60, after a missile was thrown into the house they were staying in Castleview Park last Saturday.

John’s sister Sharon Whelan, 30, and her daughters Zarah, seven, and two-year-old Nadia were murdered by deranged postman Brian Hennessy on Christmas Day 2008.

The beast raped and strangled Sharon then waited between four and five hours before setting fire to her isolated house near Windgap, Co Kilkenny, also killing her two children.

Speaking from his home in ­Kilkenny, Mr Whelan said: “What happened in Edenderry in the last week, that poor child and woman’s death in that fire, it brought it all back for me.

“It’s another family who has to go through and endure what we had to. It’s devastating and absolutely heartbreaking.”

The 54-year-old added: “And the idea that when the perpetrators are caught, and it will be said on the news and in the newspapers ‘jailed for life’, but that’s not the truth.

“They are not jailed for life, they are on licence for life. They will get the same sentence Hennessy got — 12 years — then they will be able to apply for parole and possibly be let out any time after that.”

Speaking ahead of his loved ones’ 19th anniversary on December 25, John said he wants to meet with Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan to see if he will fulfil his predecessors’ promise to enact judicial reform.

Mr Whelan said: “I would 100 per cent be up for meeting with Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan about what reforms need to be made to the justice system.

“I’m part of a group called SAVE (The Sentencing and Victim Equality Group), which I am the chairperson of, and also has Kathleen Chada and David French in it, a few other people who are outspoken about the justice system.”

He said SAVE are campaigning for judges to be able to sentence perpetrators of serious offences to “25, 30, 35 years and whole life tariff” and get rid of the parole system.

Mr Whelan said: “I have met Justice Ministers from Alan Shatter right up to Helen McEntee — but sadly I have no faith that anything is going to change because I have never felt like I was taken seriously.

“The last Minister for ­Justice, Helen McEntee, was open to the idea of a tariff system when the judge can set down a set time that has to be served before parole is heard.

“I don’t know what has happened with that and whether the new Justice Minister is going to take that on any further.

“We are going to have to wait and see.”

He added: “I haven’t sat down with one family that has experienced homicide that feels like justice has been done.

“That really needs to be looked at and there needs to be a bigger conversation about that in this country.”

Mr Whelan said his family now have to prepare themselves to meet with the parole board as monster Hennessy can apply yet again for freedom in March.

He said: “His next parole hearing is up in March/April next year so we are waiting for that to come around again.

“We are forever on this hamster wheel of trauma and preparing for the next time we have to put ­ourselves before the parole board in order to plead our case that he is not released.

“The last time I met them face-to-face as I wanted them to meet the person who has been impacted by it and talk as a human being, I wanted it to be very personal.

I haven’t sat down with one family that has experienced homicide that feels like justice has been done.”

John Whelan

“There is an unspoken pressure to keep doing this because you know one day, if you don’t keep putting the ­pressure on, he might get out. It’s a constant battle with the system.

“The justice system and the way it is set up re-traumatises, re-victimises the family every time they have to go through this process.”

Mr Whelan said he has not just lost his sister and nieces but also all the memories that would have been formed had they still been alive.

He said: “Not only is the physical presence of your loved ones taken away but every prospect has been too. What would they have become? What would their lives have been like and what wonders were ahead for them?

“All those things were taken away and we will never know.

OFFALY ARSON TRAGEDY

“It’s just frustrating when you see all the energy the State gives to perpetrators, while families don’t even get proper trauma counselling.”

Hennessy, 42, had his last application for release turned down by the parole board in June 2024.

He was handed three concurrent life sentences in 2009.

Mary Holt’s funeral takes place at 1pm tomorrow in St Mary’s Church, Edenderry, Co Offaly.

Little Tadgh’s funeral was held in the same church on Friday.

His granny Pauline Holt remains in a critical condition in hospital having suffered extensive burns in the attack.