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.