Mother of murdered youngsters calls for minimum jail terms
A WOMAN whose sons were murdered by their father has called for minimum sentencing to be brought in for all violent criminals.
Kathleen Chada told of her fear that once her husband is free, she could meet him at the graves of their children.
Sanjeev Chada is serving two life terms, running concurrently, for the murders of his sons Eoghan, ten, and Ruairí, five.
However, he will be eligible to apply for parole in five years’ time – just ten years into his jail term. The Parole Board reviews cases of prisoners sentenced to 14 or more years – including those on life terms – after they have served seven years.
Kathleen Chada and other victims’ families have now set up a campaign group to call for changes to sentencing.
She helped found the Sentencing And Victims Equality (SAVE) movement a year ago with families of other murder victims in Carlow and Kilkenny.
Speaking to Sean O’Rourke on RTÉ Radio 1 yesterday, Ms Chada expressed her fear ‘there’s a possibility’ her husband ‘will turn up and I’ll meet him at the grave’. She continued: ‘The problem with a life sentence is it is open-ended… if it were a lesser charge he would actually get a specific time.’
Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail afterwards, Ms Chada said: ‘We have to give some acknowledgement to those of us that are left behind and are carrying a life sentence. The reality is whatever happens to a perpetrator, whatever happens to Sanjeev, isn’t going to make life easier for me.
‘This is not about rehabilitation. This is about saying there needs to be justice’.
Joan Deane, a spokeswoman for AdVIC, which campaigns for
‘There needs to be justice’
greater rights for victims, their family and friends, supported Ms Chada’s comments.
She said: ‘We completely agree with Kathleen Chada’s call for tougher sentencing in Ireland.
‘In a research study of families of victims of homicide in Ireland that we conducted, 65% were not satisfied with the length of the sentence given to the perpetrator in their case.’
Ms Chada’s boys were taken by their father from their home in Carlow and driven to Mayo in July 2013. A Garda alert was issued and the boys’ bodies were found in the boot of the crashed car the following day. Ms Chada later found out her husband, who had admitted stealing €60,000 from a local community centre, had at one stage intended to kill her as well as the boys.
She told the Mail her campaign group ‘would like to see changes to the sentencing laws here in Ireland so that we know a judge is in a position to be able to say [the criminal must] serve a life sentence and to serve a minimum of 20 years, 30 years, or with no chance of parole, which is what my preference would be’.
She added: ‘It can sometimes feel very much like everything is weighted to the side of the perpetrator and making sure everything is done properly for them and ticking all the boxes for them and we can get forgotten.’ Instead, Kathleen calls for the victims’ Ms Chada to ‘have more of an input in the process’.
She suggested part of that might be increased communication between the Parole Board and families – as currently, ‘the Parole Board don’t engage with victims specifically’.
She explained: ‘What they say is that they will endeavour to take account of the position of any victims, but they don’t have to do that.’
Ms Chada is not alone in expressing her unhappiness at the judicial system.
Last February Senator MarieLouise O’Donnell introduced a Private Members’ Bill – Minimum Custodial Periods upon Conviction for Murder Bill (2017) – to the Seanad. It seeks to give the court the ability to ‘determine the minimum custodial term a person convicted of the offence of murder shall serve’.
AdVIC has called for senators to support the Bill, saying: ‘It would ensure that killers serve sentences which reflect the severity of their crime and give families the peace of mind that dangerous criminals will not be allowed to roam our streets.’
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‘We can get forgotten’