Protect my devastated family from the man who raped and murdered my wife
THE widower of a murdered woman is calling for her killer to be banned from entering her home county weeks before he comes before the parole board, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Ray Quinn has written to Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan asking him not to allow his wife’s murderer to enter Co. Kildare after his release.
Kenneth O’Reilly stalked, raped and murdered shopowner Joyce Quinn in 1996. The brutal crime destroyed her family.
Now Mr Quinn, a retired Irish Army colonel, wants the Government to protect his family after he spent a lifetime protecting others. In an exclusive interview with the MoS as he prepares for a decision on O’Reilly’s release, Mr Quinn outlined his concerns. O’Reilly’s family live near him and he worries that he will return there on his release.
‘My three children live beside me and I have eight grandchildren now. Joyce’s mother is in her 90s. We do not want this boyo anywhere near us. A precedent has been set. There is a man banned from entering Westmeath and Offaly, so I know it’s possible.’
O’Reilly, 43, is due before the parole board in the coming weeks. Mr Quinn added: ‘Realistically, he has served over 20 years and we are going to run out of road.’
Mr Quinn, who served in Beirut, stayed on in the Army after his wife’s death. Joyce’s father Commandant Thomas Wickham was shot dead by the Syrian Army in the 1960s.
‘We have served this country and we now simply ask that our country protect our families,’ he said.