Brother who lost sister and nieces hails stricter laws on sentencing

John Whelan, with mother Nancy and father Christy Whelan, leaving the High Court in 2009 after Brian Hennessy of Windgap in Co Kilkenny received two life sentences for the murder of Sharon Whelan, her seven-year-old daughter Zara and two-year-old daughter Nadia. Pic: Collins Courts

John Whelan knows that proposed changes to the murder laws will not make any difference to the man who took the lives of his sister and two little nieces.

Sometime this summer, he will face the trauma, for the second time, of "pleading" with the parole board not to release this man.

Despite that, he said it is “a good day”.

He said the announcement by Justice Minister Helen McEntee - that she intends to bring forward proposals to give judges discretion to impose a minimum term of imprisonment before murderers can even apply for parole - as “huge” for families.

Mr Whelan, along with many others, has been campaigning for more than a decade to successive governments to change the law and enable judges to direct an absolute minimum period in prison for those serving the automatic life sentence for murder.

Up until recently, murderers could apply for parole after seven years. Last year, that was increased to 12 years.

“This is a big announcement by the minister,” Mr Whelan said. “This is huge for victims’ families. I’ve been campaigning for the last 12 years or more.” 

His sister, Sharon Whelan, aged 30, and her two children, Zarah, seven, and Nadia, two, were murdered in their Kilkenny home by Brian Hennessy on Christmas Eve 2008.

Hennessy, aged 27 and a neighbour of Ms Whelan, raped the single mother before strangling her, setting fire to the home, and killing her two girls.

Sharon Whelan was raped before being strangled.

Nadia and Zarah Whelan, who were killed alongside their mother.

In November 2009, in a landmark sentence, Mr Justice Barry White handed down three life sentences, to run consecutively – one after another.

The Court of Criminal Appeal overturned that sentence and ordered all life terms to run concurrently – at the same time.

“To this day, no one can tell me which life he is serving that sentence for - it diminished the other two," Mr Whelan said. "I respect Judge White, but I don’t think we’ll forgive the justice system.” 

He said he never stops wondering what his nieces would be doing now and what their lives would hold.

“Families are living a life sentence from day one, where a perpetrator has hope,” he said. “They are working towards a release date, whether it's 12 years or 16 or 20 years.” 

He said families are “re-traumatised” by the current process.

 It’s an ordeal for families writing to the Parole Board, pleading that their perpetrator is not released. Families had and have enough to deal with. It’s cruelty – we are dragged back to day one again.

He applauded Minister McEntee and urged the Cabinet to implement these changes as soon as possible.

“I urge them, for the sake of everything that’s proper and good, to row in behind the minister,” he said.