A FAMILY’S PAIN

As John McManus’s killer was jailed for life his 18-year-old sister Mary revealed the devastating effects of murder

DURING this trial, you have heard from everyone except from the person who is the real victim of this, John.

We will never get to hear from him what happened that night, he has no voice in this trial. We are his only voice now to say how the loss of John affected our lives and how they’ll never be the same again without him.

John was born on May 9, 1983, and has two very loving parents, Pat and Ger. He is the eldest of four children. He has one brother, Conor and two sisters, Ciara and Mary. John was a larger than life character who lived a very colourful life, he was so high spirited and he lived every day to the full.

John was the sort of person when he walked into a room, he lit it up. You couldn’t help but like him, he was always full of laughter and fun and had a massive sense of humour. He was very decent and generous. He’d give you what he had in his pocket. Because of this he had so many friends.

John had a very testing life. When he was 13 he was knocked down by a car and almost died on the way to the hospital, yet against the odds he pulled through and because of this we cherished him all the more in our lives, we had a second chance.

When John first went missing we were all full of shock and disbelief. The guards told us to hope for the best but expect the worst.

Never in our wildest dreams did we think he had met such a gruesome end. On hearing that there was blood found in the flat, our minds couldn’t help but conjure images what could have happened our son and brother; when panic set in we contacted all his friends and held a vigil each night in the hope John would come home.

As a last resort, we contacted the media and pleaded for John’s safe return. This was most unusual not to hear from him because all of us were always in constant contact with him, and even if he’d no credit he would inundate us with “call me’s” until he was called.

On the November 6, 2008, our worst fears were confirmed when we were told a body was found in a bog in north Kerry and it may have been John.

You will never know how it feels to see your Dad come home after identifying his oldest child and telling the rest of us that he was so badly beaten we couldn’t see him to say goodbye properly or to believe it was really him.

As a family, we were left with so many unanswered questions and we never thought that it would be two years to the day almost before the true events of that night would be told to us.

When John moved into his new flat, he was so proud to have gained his independence and was meticulous in the upkeep of his flat and was doing his best to make a life for himself. Even though he was living independent, he still remained close to his family.

The horrific death that John got will haunt us for all the days our lives. It is a death that no family should have to go through, especially when it was in his own home where he felt safe.

There is not a day goes by when we do not think of John, our lives have been consumed by his absence.

On the last day John came home, a week before he died we sat around as John told us with great humour how he decided he would write a book about his life called, I Didn’t Do It, by John McManus. He said he was just waiting for a good ending.

Unfortunately, this ending would happen sooner than he thought, and it wasn’t the good ending he was expecting.

Instead it was filled with hatred and evil. Now all we have left is the image of a closed coffin, and a lock of hair from our beautiful brother and son.

John was too dearly loved to ever be forgotten.