Guardianship removal legislation 'Valerie's Law' due before Cabinet next month

The law is named after Cork woman Valerie French who was 41 when her husband, James Kilroy, killed her at their shared home in Mayo in June 2019. File picture

Legislation to remove guardianship rights from convicted killers will be brought to Cabinet next month, justice minister Jim O'Callaghan has announced.

Valerie's Law would see guardianship removed from a person convicted of the murder or manslaughter of another parent or guardian of a child.

Currently, people who kill their partners or ex-partners fully retain guardianship of any shared children.

The law is named after Cork woman Valerie French who was 41 when her husband, James Kilroy, killed her at their shared home in Mayo in June 2019. Her three children were found by gardaí in their rural home hungry and "very dehydrated".

However, campaigners have said that the law must go further and it should not take a death for guardianship to be taken from a violent, abusive person. Domestic violence survivor Nicola Hanney said:

I think we should be keeping women alive, not waiting until they are dead to do the right thing by our children.

If we are really trying to change the future of this country and not repeat the same cycle all the time then the law must act before it is too late, Ms Hanney said.

Her ex-partner, former garda Paul Moody, harassed, threatened, assaulted, stole from and controlled the woman for over four years after they met online in 2017 including while she was battling cancer.

Where there are children in the home or part of a relationship that is abusive, physically or mentally, it is having an impact on them, Ms Hanney said.

"It's what they are witnessing so I think there should be consequences for someone that is behaving that way," she said.

Women's Aid has said there needs to be a more child-centred approach to dealing with domestic abuse and coercive control.

CEO of Women's Aid Sarah Benson said that Valerie's Law should be enacted as early as is possible but there should be an examination on what further measures can be taken in terms of guardianship to protect children from the impact of abuse in the home.

Separately, a Dáil motion on gender-based violence has been debated in the Dáil with calls for the Government to ban the use of counselling notes and character references in cases of gender-based violence.

People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger, who brought the motion, said that survivors are demanding change to the "misogynistic court process and the injustice of our justice system".

In a 10-point plan, Ms Coppinger also called for compulsory training for judges, more educational programmes in schools and colleges and an end to delays for rape and gender violence trials.