Cork woman stabbed more than 20 times wants victims' advocate on parole board

Sinead O'Leary survived vicious knife attack that killed her best friend

Sinéad O'Leary who survived the attack in which her best friend Nichola Sweeney was killed. Picture: Denis Minihane.

A woman who was stabbed more than 20 times in a vicious knife attack that killed her best friend is calling for a victims’ rights advocate to be appointed to the new parole board.

Sinead O’Leary said that including someone to represent victims is vital to maintain a balance on the new board as a non-governmental advocate for prisoners will have a seat on the board.

The new parole act, which was passed into law last year but has not yet been implemented, does allow the Minister for Justice some discretion to appoint members with “sufficient experience and expertise” to the new Board.

Implementing the new parole act is also a pressing issue for Ms O’Leary.

Peter Whelan, the man who tried to kill her and who murdered her best friend Nichola Sweeney at Ms Sweeney’s family home in Rochestown, Cork, in 2001, is due a parole hearing this month.

She recently submitted a victim impact statement to the Parole Board, a process Ms O’Leary said was “extremely traumatic” and which she said also requires some reform.

“You’re writing that letter to the person who murdered your best friend and tried to murder you. I woke up with nightmares every night over the weeks it took me to write it.

“Your victim impact statement will not be seen by the Board unless it can also be seen by the perpetrator. I think that’s unfair and dangerous. You have to include a lot of very personal information in the letter that could be unsafe for the killer to know. 

"You should be able to submit two separate letters if you want - one to the parole board and one to the violent offender.” 

Sinead O’Leary pictured at her home in Cork with a picture of her best friend Nichola Sweeney who was killed in a knife attack in Rochestown, Cork in 2002. Picture: Dan Linehan

Another change Ms O’Leary wants to see is the introduction of exclusion zones so that violent criminals cannot return to the area where their victims or their victims’ surviving families now live.

“Families all over the country are living in fear that their loved one’s killers are being released back into their community," Ms O'Leary said.

“They talk about the importance of mental health in this country and about redressing the balance in the justice system so that victims have more rights.

“But really they’re only words.

“We asked for exclusion zones and the urgent implementation of the Parole Act in 2019 with Charlie Flanagan. Yet one whole year later and nothing has changed.

It’s terrifying that our voices are still being ignored.

“The perpetrator is supported to rebuild their life but the victims and their families suffer unimaginable trauma and are just left to fend for themselves.

“The system is clearly not balanced."

Ms O'Leary and the Sweeneys learned to their horror that Whelan had met the Parole Board multiple times before he had served the required seven years in prison for a life sentence. Following these early meetings with the current Board, Whelan had been back in Cork on multiple escorted day releases from prison but the Sweeneys and O'Learys were not officially informed.

"It’s traumatising for victims when they find out later that their loved one’s killer has been back in their hometown without anyone informing them from the State.

“Nichola’s life has been devalued and the community has been put in danger by allowing Whelan’s temporary release before he’d even served seven years for killing Nichola. Now he’s due a parole hearing and if he’s let out, he will hurt someone again.” 

Remembering that night, when Whelan, broke into the Sweeney's home and viciously attacked the girls, then aged 19 and 20, with knives, Ms O’Leary wrote in her victim impact statement: “He was silent the entire time. Our desperate screams and cries pleading for our lives were the only sounds to be heard. I had only heard sounds of terror like these in the most wicked of movies but this was not a movie. 

"These were palpable, blood-curdling screams of terror and pain. I am haunted by Nichola’s fear, the ever so real sound of her fear and mine. 

"I will never forget the menacing look upon his face, the pleasure he experienced in our pain.” 

Ms O'Leary managed to call for help after Whelan left them both for dead that night. When gardaí arrived at the scene under sirens and flashing lights, Whelan, who was a neighbour of the Sweeneys, returned to the crime scene, calmly asking gardaí what had happened. 

"He had both the capacity to execute such extreme and unwavering violence and he had the capacity to have the presence of mind to just stand there like a normal person 10 minutes later," Ms O'Leary said.

"A deceitful and manipulative individual who possesses the ability to completely mask his real murderous self just moments after slaughtering innocent victims.

"He possesses all the hallmark traits of a psychopath.

"Peter Whelan tried to take my life and now I fear for mine and the community’s safety.

"I am appealing to the Parole Board not to release him now."

• To sign a petition calling for the swift implementation of the Parole Act 2019 which would extend the minimum term of a life sentence from seven to 12 years, preventing Peter Whelan from accessing a parole hearing for another five years, click here