FAMILY’S VISITS TO SEE DOUBLE KILLER IN JAIL
EVIL double killer Yousef Palani has made up with his heartbroken family.
It is understood his mother and sister visited him recently behind bars for the first time in Mountjoy Prison.
The 23-year-old was jailed for life last year after pleading guilty to the murders of two gay men in Sligo.
Aidan Moffitt 42, and 58-year-old Michael Snee were brutally attacked in their homes in the town.
His family initially had little or no contact with him because of the shame he had brought on them. But yesterday a prison source said: “Palani has made up with his family and they have been to
see him in Mountjoy. He has also had a number of visits with them by video link.
“He is still being detained in protective custody because he is a high risk.
“He has applied to be in the main prison population but that has not been granted yet for operational reasons.”
Palani is said to be a model prisoner who is very respectful and polite to
warders. He spends most of his days in his cell watching TV and reading. He goes for walks on his own in the yard accompanied by officers.
The source added: “It is very hard to believe he did what he did but he admitted his crimes and is doing his time.
“He is still a very young man. The whole episode was as much a shock to his family as his victims.”
Palani’s trial heard he met his victims via a dating app and murdered them because of his “hostility and prejudice” towards homosexuals.
He also received a further 20 years for seriously assaulting another local man Anthony Burke, who he had attacked first but who escaped and survived.
Gardai said at the time he would have continued his four-day killing spree if he hadn’t been tracked down.
Palani’s family moved to Ireland from war-torn Iraq when he was six.
His dad is widely respected and runs a business in Sligo town.