The Barry case highlights the pressing need for legal reform

If previous convictions were taken into account and Barry denied bail, Manuela might still be alive, writes Jennifer Hough.

GERALD BARRY was just 16 when he first came to the attention of gardaí as a violent offender.

The Galway teenager from Mervue had already been in trouble for minor offences but this one, in the summer of 1996, was by far his most serious.

Barry was part of a gang of four who set upon a stag party in Eyre Square, resulting in the death of 26-year-old Colm Phelan from Tipperary, who died after being struck on the head with a bottle.

The attack was a random, senseless act of violence, but upon closer examination, it was clear the gang’s ringleader was a young man hell-bent on a path of destruction.

This twisted and terrible path ended with the savage taking of another young life.

Ironically, Barry’s last victim, Swiss girl Manuela Riedo, was the same age as her killer when he was convicted for his first brutal act – just 17.

And, in the first of a litany of system failures, which ultimately ended with Barry raping and murdering the Swiss student on a strip of wasteland in Galway city, 17-year-old Barry was only found guilty of violent disorder in the killing of Colm Phelan, despite originally being charged with manslaughter. He was sentenced to five years, but served just two.

In yet another cruel twist of fate – or perhaps a gross failing of our justice system – earlier in the same year in which he was involved in the killing of Colm Phelan, Barry had been sentenced to 18 months in prison for malicious damage. Had he served his full sentence, or even close to it, the Tipperary man would be alive today.

And, if he had not been granted bail, in accordance with Garda recommendations, for the assault of his partner in 2007, Manuela Riedo and Barry would never have crossed paths.

The details of the Swiss girl’s heinous murder have been well documented, but so horrific is the case that it deserves to be retold and remembered – if only to impress how badly change is needed within the legal system.

Barry strangled Ms Riedo after raping her on an isolated pedestrian walkway known as The Line, close to the Lough Atalia area of Galway city on October 8, 2007.

Ms Riedo, who had only arrived in Ireland three days earlier to study English at a language school in the city, died from asphyxia and had a number of injuries to her head.

A fun-loving, innocent and generous girl, her young life was taken in the most hideous of ways.

Earlier this year, Barry, aged 29, was sentenced to life imprisonment for her murder. Life in this country meaning an average of 14 years.

He also received two five-year sentences for stealing her camera and a mobile phone – to run alongside his life sentence. But not one extra day for her rape. This was the justice system’s full might borne down on a man capable of the most awful of crimes.

Yesterday, when Mr Justice Paul Carney imposed a further two life sentences on him for the rape of a French woman – a crime he committed just seven weeks before he murdered Manuela – the system finally attempted to make amends for its past failures.

But in another damning indictment of our law – the sentences will again run concurrently – alongside his life sentence for Manuela’s murder.

Speaking to the court yesterday, Mr Justice Carney pointed out Barry had a “propensity and proclivity to kill and rape and would do so if given the chance again”.

What a pity his “propensities” had not been taken into account at all those other bail hearings and sentencing hearings down through the years. And what a pity he will more than likely be free again, perhaps in less than 20 years time. The discretion of a parole board will decide in time.

So how did this man, branded “the devil” by Manuela’s parents, come to wreck such havoc on so many lives.

From a family of eight, five brothers and three sisters, it was by all accounts a highly dysfunctional family.

From a young age he racked up short sentences for crimes such as theft, public order and minor drugs possession offences to convictions for burglary and violent disorder and innumerable drug and road traffic offences, which were punctuated by spells in Trinity House and St Patrick’s Institution when he was a teenager, and prison in adulthood.

In addition to the 1996 killing, in a vicious assault he completely blinded an elderly man at his home for which he got two years and was also convicted of the sexual assault of an ex-partner. Indeed, during his trial for Manuela’s murder his counsel argued he too had been failed by the State.

Sources have indicated that Barry and his siblings should have been taken into care as their upbringing was violent, and they may have been exposed to sexual violence too.

But whatever his upbringing, whatever he himself was exposed to, it is no excuse for the horrors he inflicted on his victims. The devastating effects of his crimes were recently given a voice through the victim impact statement of the French woman he raped just before Manuela’s murder.

The young woman did not want to appear in court herself – or indeed ever come to this country again – but speaking on her behalf in court earlier this week, Detective Inspector Gerard Roche revealed how the French woman, a student at NUI Galway and a part-time waitress, had been enjoying a night out with friends listening to traditional Irish music.

She went to get a taxi, but the town was busy and she feared she would be waiting for up to an hour at a taxi rank. So she decided to walk to the house where she was staying in Ballybane.

When she reached Mervue, she noticed a man in a white hoodie and a baseball cap behind her. Within seconds the man (Barry) grabbed her by the hair and placed a knife to her throat.

According to the woman’s statement, he said: “Do what I want and I won’t kill you. I just want to shag you.”

Barry dragged her to the St James’s GAA pitch on Walter Macken Road, threatening to kill her if she turned her face to look at him.

She pleaded with him to let her go, telling him she was a virgin. But Barry would not relent. He began groping at her body.

“He asked me if I liked it. I said: ‘No.’ He said: ‘You will like it’.”

He continued to threaten her, saying: “I know where you are living. If you go to the police I will kill you.”

He forced her to her knees and aggressively raped her. The ordeal seemed to go on forever, she said. He kept telling her: “You’re a nice girl” and “I have the power over you”.

At one stage in the attack, Barry made “a deal” with the victim that if she gave him oral sex one more time he would let her go but afterwards he refused to do so and instead raped her twice more.

After the final rape, Barry noticed that the woman was cut and said: “Hey, you are bleeding, great.”

The day after the attack she attended a local hospital and was so traumatised she could not recount to staff what had happened. She had to write down “I was raped” on a piece of paper.

She was initially too terrified to report the rape to the Gardaí because Barry had threatened to kill her, but eventually made a full statement.

In court earlier this week, Det Insp Roche read from her victim impact report in which she described Barry as “a predator”.

“He is not a human or a man. He is a liar, a rapist and a murderer. I beg you not to let him out because he will do it again,” she said.

“I am surprised that I am still alive. Why was I let go? Why I am still breathing?”

The sickening details, no doubt, painfully provided by this brave young woman wipe away any doubt that Barry could, would or should be saved from anything less than spending the rest of his life behind bars, where he will no longer pose a risk to innocent people walking the streets.

She described Barry as perpetrating “disgusting, bad actions on other people” and asked “how can he sleep at night, be living, breathing, walking, laughing, and listening to music?”

On the same night he attacked the French girl, he also assaulted his partner. She complained to Gardaí and they arrested and charged him in relation to that assault.

They also realised that the clothes that he was wearing matched a description given by the French student and he was questioned in relation to her rape.

However, Det Insp Roche said no evidential value had come from their initial questioning of Barry in relation to the case.

A bloodstained top was recovered after a raid on Barry’s parents home in St James’s Crescent, Mervue.

The next day he appeared in Galway District Court in relation to the assault but was granted bail despite the objections of gardaí.

While the investigation into the rape of the French student was ongoing, Barry murdered Ms Riedo.

While alternative action against this man may have prevented the murder of Manuela Riedo, what is most striking is the decision to grant him bail in the summer of 2007 following the assault on his girlfriend.

The judge at that time perhaps felt justified as he may not have been aware of Barry’s previous crimes – and could not have known he was under investigation for the rape of the French student.

In any case, he was granted bail and went on to rape and murder Manuela.

The two further life sentences handed down yesterday mean Barry will be locked up for a long time. But always at the back of this terrible tale is the knowledge that this could have been prevented, if only he had not been granted bail time and time again for several crimes.

Any right thinking person would surely agree that there are certain cases where a man’s previous crimes must be taken into account for the safety and protection of the rest of society.