Family of murder victims say they’re serving life sentence

The family of a 30-year-old Kilkenny woman murdered with her two young children almost five years ago have spoken of the life sentence they will serve as the killer of their loved ones moves closer to potential freedom.

The bodies of Sharon Whelan and her daughters Zarah, 7, and Nadia, 2, were found following a fire at their home in Windgap, Co Kilkenny, on Christmas Day, 2008. In 2009, Brian Hennessy, a local postman, was convicted of raping the single mother before strangling her, setting fire to her rented home, and killing the girls. He was initially sentenced to three life sentences with two to run consecutively, but he won an appeal which saw the sentence reduced to three concurrent life sentences.

Ms Whelan’s parents, Christy and Nancy, and brother, John, yesterday spoke to the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk of the events on the day of the tragedy, as well as its aftermath. Christy Whelan told how, the night before the tragedy, he travelled the mile or so to his daughter’s rented house to leave off the Christmas presents, trying not to wake the children.

The next morning Sharon’s mobile rang out. Then he saw a man outside his kitchen who told him his daughter’s house was in flames. When he got there, they would not let him go around the back of the property.

He said he only found out afterwards that was because the three bodies were there.

John Whelan, Sharon’s brother, now vice-chairman of victims’ group Advic, said when the sentence was read out there was an intake of breath in the courtroom because people did not expect two life sentences to run consecutively.

“After the sentence was handed down, every guard and inspector involved in the case became very emotional. They were happy with the sentence. But it went to the Court of Appeal and the phrase that was used to us was that he was successful in his appeal and the sentence was too harsh.”

He added: “We know that Brian Hennessy will sit down in front of a parole board in seven years — actually it is coming up in the next four years — where he is going to plead for his freedom. The stress and anxiety that causes to families is unbelievable.”

His parents’ grief is massive. “It destroyed my life completely,” said Christy Whelan. “We are after getting life. We have to do our sentence for the rest of our lives. We get up every morning and go to the graveyard and say a rosary.”

His wife says there will never be Christmas in their house again, “not while my body is over the clay”.

“I have to sleep with the telly on all night,” she said. “If I wake up I would just go back to her last moments all the time and I think ‘if only I had been there for her, was she calling for me?’. That stays with me.”