You cannot rehabilitate a psychopath
Sharon Whelan’s grieving brother criticises the parole process as the man who murdered her and her two young children on Christmas Day, and set the house on f ire to cover up his crime, appeals to be set free after 14 years behind bars
THE grieving brother and uncle of a young woman and her two young girls who were brutally murdered on Christmas Day has criticised the torturous process families are forced to go through to keep their loved ones’ killers behind bars.
John Whelan spoke out ahead of the 15th anniversary of the murders of his sister Sharon and her two daughters, Zarah and Nadia, who were just seven and two years old when they were killed by postman Brian Hennessy at their home in Windgap, Co. Kilkenny, in 2008.
Hennessy then set the house alight in a bid to cover up his horrific crime.
The killer is due to appear before the parole board this week when he will beg for his release from prison.
Currently, convicted murderers serving a life sentence may apply for parole after
‘Killer due before parole board this week’
12 years, and every two years after that.
This means Sharon Whelan’s family will have to go through the trauma of doing everything in their power, in a continuous two-year cycle, to make sure Hennessy remains locked up.
In an interview with the Irish Mail on Sunday ahead of the landmark anniversary of his sister and nieces’ murders, John Whelan noted Sharon would be just 45 – ‘with her whole life ahead of her’ – if she were still alive today.
Mr Whelan, who is a qualified psychotherapist and former chair of the AdVIC (Advocates for Victims of Homicide) group, has called for legislative changes to save families such as his own from further trauma in combating killers’ parole requests.
He echoed calls made by Judge
Tony Hunt in the wake of the Ashling Murphy murder trial for judges to be given the power to impose whole-life sentences on convicted murderers.
Mr Whelan said a whole-life sentence for Hennessy would have given his family ‘some peace and some sense of justice’ if it was allowed under Irish law.
He told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘The judge in the Ashling Murphy case said it’s long overdue that the tariff system is brought in where whole-life orders can be handed down.
‘How many times do we have to see people on the steps of the courthouse saying they have not got justice before something changes?’ he asked.
Brian Hennessy, also from Windgap, was convicted of the triple murders in 2009 and given three life sentences – one for murdering Ms Whelan and one for each of the children, to run concurrently after the first life sentence is served.
But in 2010 the convicted murderer succeeded in his bid to have all three sentences run concurrently. Mr Whelan said the fact that his family has to come before the parole board every couple of years to oppose Hennessy’s release is ‘absolutely farcical’.
He told the MoS: ‘A wholelife order would have made a massive difference to us. If this was another jurisdiction, Hennessy would have received a whole-life tariff. ‘We shouldn’t be doing that. It shouldn’t be on us to do that. They say it is optional, but if you didn’t do it how could you live with yourself if he was released?’
The grieving brother said the latest parole process for Hennessy has taken over six months.
‘It is a constant cycle of preparing for it [the hearing] and the anxiety and the stress and the tension and the idea that you are going have to go through all this again.
‘He gets to hear everything you have said and done, and we don’t get to hear anything about what he is participating in in terms of rehabilitation.’
Speaking after the sentencing of Ashling Murphy’s killer Joseph Puska last month, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Government is considering introducing legislation next year to allow judges to impose longer minimum life sentences for serious crimes.
Mr Whelan questioned whether a psychopath can ever be rehabilitated, saying he has never seen any evidence to convince him that it is possible.
He added he is ‘fairly confident’ Hennessy will not be released any time soon, considering the gravity of the crimes he committed.
‘I work as a psychotherapist and I have yet to come across anything that convinces me a psychopath can be rehabilitated.
‘I am fairly confident he won’t be released, but it still feels like it is our family’s responsibility to keep fighting and making sure that he serves every second in prison.’
Mr Whelan said a ‘dedicated service to look after victims and their families should be a priority’.
He said: ‘I only met the other night with Kathleen Chada [whose two sons Eoghan, 10, and Ruairi, five, were murdered by their father in 2013], and some of the guys from SAVE [Sentencing and Victims Equality], and we were talking about how the devastation never leaves you.
‘It’s always difficult around Christmas time for my family, but this year especially because he is going to be before the parole board just before Christmas, with a decision then in the first quarter of the year. We met the parole board in May and now it is his turn to be before them.’
Regarding his own coping mechanism, Mr Whelan said ‘it is appreciating what we have as well, and not losing sight of that either’.
He added: ‘It does make me hugely appreciative of what I have, and how precious life is, and live it to the best of my ability, because we don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow.
‘Sharon would be 45 now – still so young, and she should have her whole life ahead of her.’
‘I’m fairly confident he won’t be released’