Impact

Delivered in Court on Monday 29th July in advance as part of the Sentencing

VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENT 

This is difficult, please bear with me. 

I've waited five years to say this so if I need five minutes to compose myself that’s just the way it is. 

As the judge said Brevity is to be encouraged.

I am Valerie’s brother.

The impact is beyond words. 

This is a victim impact statement but there is no longer a victim. Our sister Valerie is not here anymore. She now exists only in our memory.

Or there are many victims here. Besides Valerie there is the death of our mother which followed soon after. I see this as a direct consequence of the crime before this Court. My mother was in deep shock and could not come to terms with this evil act. To compound the extreme stress from the murder of her daughter she feared for the fate of her grandchildren. Our mother was a calm, steady understated person and not given to histrionics or exaggeration. She stated “Our family is destroyed” and she also said “My life is ruined.”. Our mother was under tremendous stress and then died suddenly. The State requested an official inquest but it did not uncover any underlying medical issues. 

I believe that for our mother the impact was a death sentence.

My sisters and I have been consumed by this since the murder and there is no end in sight. We have lost someone who was a continual source of joy and loving consideration. Crimes like this have a ripple effect on relationships, employment and health. Our children have been deeply traumatised by the sudden loss of their beloved Aunt Valerie and haunted by thoughts of the killer who we welcomed into our family and as a guest in our homes. This has led to many serious issues.

There are many other people impacted. Valerie had a very wide circle of friends, classmates and colleagues both in Mayo and across Ireland, England and Wales. Many made the long sudden journey to her funeral. 

Relatives and neighbours across West Cork have been shocked by this. Valerie’s death and the fate of her three children were among the last things our uncle Joe spoke of before he died. We could never tell our late Aunty Rita for fear of the effect it would have had on her. 

There has been considerable financial impact. Employment has been lost. There has been necessary long distance and repeated intercontinental travel. 

Valerie’s murder was violent and prolonged with multiple assaults and several major injuries. She died in terror for her own life and the lives of her children. When I identified my sister’s broken body I saw where he strangled her and stabbed her in the neck. Valerie’s inquest was actually a relief as this shocking information became public knowledge but I can still see the horror on her face as she lay on the mortuary slab. Valerie was savagely slaughtered. She was not resting in peace. 

Valerie’s funeral strove to be a celebration of her life. Her orphaned infant son lovingly arranged handpicked daisies on his mother’s coffin which obviously had to be closed. Picture a five year old boy wearing his best clothes holding a bunch of flowers and carefully lining them up while a full church stands in silence. 

The press accounts of the funeral noted that the congregation were asked by me to pray for the person responsible for her death. Nobody should ever confuse that request with any form of forgiveness or forgetting. There is no forgetting, there is no forgiveness and there never will be. 

Valerie’s death was deeply traumatic and impactful to all the victims. Deaths are not comparable but some are understandable. Most  people die of old age and unavoidable illness, some by sudden accident and some by their own hand. Murder is in a completely different category where the death was by intent.  Domestic homicide tops all of them with the existence of a perpetrator who is well known to the mourners and who has been treated as family. Domestic homicide where there are children involved is even worse.

There are three victims who cannot speak for themselves here. Two of my nephews were pre-verbal when the murder occurred but one when he learned to speak said “I miss Mummy” after seeing a photograph. It was one of his earliest sentences and clearly deeply felt. These are innocent little boys who have been robbed of an extremely capable, talented and loving mother who literally gave everything she could to them while she was alive and ended up giving her life for them. 

The eldest, my nephew and godson, is obviously deeply and forever impacted by this evil deed and the younger boys know loss at a deep level. When they come of age they’ll eventually learn the full story with all the inhumane and horrifying details. That is like a minefield in their future and delayed trauma is a real possibility. 

My sister Valerie planned for them to find their own way in the world unburdened by trauma, expectations or legacy. She made a happy nest for them. She was so excited to see them growing up and took delight in every move they made. She regularly shared that love with us. She felt so lucky to be a mother at all and so lucky to be their mother. Valerie kept a baby journal and wrote on the inside cover : “This book is dedicated to “the miracle of believing and dreams coming true”.

As their uncle I have almost half a century more experience than they do. I know she isn’t coming back and I knew Valerie for far longer than they did. The pain and the bitter tears are no less than if I’d seen her killed in front of me as a little boy myself.

The last day of evidence in this trial was the 23rd of July. This would have been my little sister's 47th birthday. I remember her first birthday.

Our sister Valerie was a strong person mentally and physically. She stood shoulder to shoulder with me under the front of our father’s coffin in 2002. Valerie was able to carry the full weight in every aspect of her life and did so without letting it get her down. She was neither a shrinking violet nor a dominant character. She spent her work life helping others. She enabled, supported and gave space to her killer. Like most people my sister Valerie simply wanted a marriage with a loving home in which to raise a family.

Ever since Valerie’s murder, her killer has attempted to control the narrative, to minimise it completely and avoid accountability. To date no remorse in any form whatsoever has ever been shown to us. Without real remorse there is no rehabilitation. For us there will be no family visits with our sister and no release from this pain. 

I have not lived a sheltered life by any measure. Some close friends have died in horrific accidents or suicides. I have been involved in events abroad where people lost their lives in conflict zones. I spent much of January 2024 visiting our cousin who had a terminal illness followed by his funeral in February. 

I am sharing this only because it gives context to the impact the killing of my sister by her husband has had on my life. All of the incidents above affected me deeply. The murder of a sister by someone known to you is on a whole other level.

You might be thinking the impact cannot be too bad because I am standing here five years later. This is one of the things traumatised people do. We compartmentalise in order to function when required. You don’t see the flashbacks, the nightmares, the sudden tears or the despair. It feels like Valerie is murdered again every morning when I wake and realise this has really happened. It was agony then and it is agony now.

I remain seriously impacted by the killing of my sister and that death is now over five years ago. This is not initial shock or normal grief a year or two later. 

It's not just that she's dead. It's the fact that her death was intentional. It is the fact that the person who killed her was known to her. It is the absolutely horrific way that she died. There is an utterly terrifying black hole of silence where my sister Valerie used to be. 

Since the murder I doubt my own judgement of people. I know the relationships in my life have been damaged because of this. I have seen how people can opportunistically take advantage of even a situation like a murder. I continually work to contain a frightening level of anger and sheer rage at what the killer has done.

For five years I could not say anything for fear of upsetting the trial. I sincerely thank the Court for the opportunity to finally speak openly and publicly. The only reason I am here is because my sister Valerie cannot deliver her own victim impact statement. Her life was taken in the cruellest, most violent and terrifying way possible and her broken body lies in a grave in West Cork. 

That is the impact.