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Gerald Barry
August 16, 2009
VOL 26 NO 33
The men for whom life means life
There were 98 people serving life sentences in 1998. Today the number of 'lifers' is 236. Will any of them get out? That depends on who they murdered and how much of a media frenzy their crime attracted.
Brian Meehan
Joe O'Reilly
Malcolm MacArthur
Geoffrey Evans and John Shaw
Michael Banbrick
It is intended to strike fear into the hearts of even the most hardened criminals. A life sentence behind bars. But in reality, the average "lifer" spends 17 years locked up. But for a small cohort of Irish prisoners, life literally does mean life.
Murderers and sex offenders whose crimes are so heinous that they spark off a media frenzy, have major difficulties when trying to get parole. Gerald Barry, the 29-year old who raped and murdered Swiss student Manuela Riedo, and also raped a young French woman in 2007, is the newest member of this unique club. It is highly unlikely he will ever live in normal society again. The same applies to child-killer Ronnie Dunbar. The 44-year-old was handed down a life sentence in May for the manslaughter of 14-year-old Melissa Mahon who, it was alleged, he killed because she said she was pregnant with his child.
The pair pose such a threat to society because of the high risk that they'll repeat-offend that freeing them is a gamble the state cannot afford.
The case of Gerald Barry provoked outrage when it emerged he was on bail for the rape of a Frenchwoman when he raped and murdered Swiss student Riedo. "Everyone agrees that Barry should never have had the opportunity to come into contact with Manuela Riedo. But he got bail after that rape and he must have been felt, 'how am I still out? How am I getting away with this?'" said Jonathan Culleton, a lecturer in sociology and criminal justice at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT). "The judicial system didn't do its job in the first place."
Gubu murderer
Infamous Gubu murderer Malcolm MacArthur – who has been in prison for 26 years – is the classic example of a lifer who has failed to secure his freedom. His lawyers are due before the High Court shortly to try to compel the state to enter a defence against his claims that he should be released under a parole-board recommendation. He maintains his continued detention breaches his rights under the constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. His legal team will argue that parole-board recommendations should be given greater weight by the justice minister.
Unlike many other jurisdictions, the justice minister rather than the judiciary has the final say on whether a life prisoner should be released under strict conditions. "There is a strong feeling that it's utterly unacceptable that criminal-justice decisions are made by politicians," said a legal source.
"Politicians make decisions based on popularity and it would not be a popular decision to allow MacArthur out of prison. Anything to do with the administration of justice should be dealt with by the judiciary."
It would be a brave justice minister who allows the only man convicted of the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin out of prison, said Culleton. Brian Meehan (43), a native of Crumlin in Dublin, is the only person serving a sentence for Guerin's murder. He was jailed for life by the non-jury Special Criminal Court in July 1999 and given concurrent jail sentences for drugs and firearms offences. "When he's deciding whether or not to let a life sentence prisoner out, there's an element of 'playing to the stalls' by all justice ministers. That's politics," Culleton said. "The most equitable system would be the judiciary deciding whether a life sentence prisoner is fit for release. MacArthur is the classic example of consecutive justice ministers simply not wanting to deal with the backlash that would result from his release."
Justice minster Dermot Ahern recently told the Sunday Tribune: There is nothing on the horizon" concerning MacArthur's possible release from Shelton Abbey open prison in Wicklow.
It is understood that MacArthur, who was temporarily released last Christmas Day, is anxious for his freedom. He is currently the second-longest serving prisoner in the Irish prison system, for the murder of nurse Bridie Gargan in the Phoenix Park in 1982, but he was never pursued for a second murder. Days after his attack on Gargan, he shot dead farmer Donal Dunne with Dunne's own gun near his home in Edenderry, Co Offaly.
MacArthur was later arrested in the home of former attorney general Patrick Connolly. The series of events leading up to his arrest attracted major controversy and were described by then taoiseach Charles Haughey as "grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented". As a result, it was coined the 'Gubu' affair by commentator Conor Cruise O'Brien.
Geoffrey Evans and John Shaw, Ireland's first serial killers, are the country's longest serving prisoners after being handed down mandatory life sentences in 1978. The pair developed a chilling plan to murder one Irish woman every week in the 1970s. They raped and murdered Dubliner Elizabeth Plunkett and Mary Duffy from Co Mayo before they were caught.
The two men were already wanted in connection with three violent sex attacks on women in Britain, from where both men originally came. Sixty-six-year-old Evans has been on a life support machine in hospital since he suffered a major heart attack in December and is unlikely ever to regain consciousness.
"He will die in hospital as a prisoner," said a prison source. "He was deemed too dangerous to release."
Over the years, both men repeatedly failed in their attempts to be freed or even granted temporary release.
Triple killer John Cullen, jailed for life after fire-bombing the home of a prostitute in 1983, could also die behind bars. Seán Brennan is another of the country's longest serving prisoners. He was jailed in 1998 after admitting the shotgun murder of his former married lover at a spot they had frequently visited while dating.
Crimes of passion
But what will be the fate of some of the Ireland's more recent 'crime-of-passion' murderers, who have captivated the public's imagination?
"It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Joe O'Reilly [convicted of the murder of his wife Rachel O'Reilly] has a tough time getting released in 20 years' time. He certainly isn't getting out anytime soon," said Culleton. "And a significant proportion of the population believes he should never get out of prison. There's nothing wrong with that view. My problem is the consistency. There should be an element of fairness. Inmates serving life sentences who happened to become famous in the media should not be treated any differently. But they are. The system should be equally fair or equally unfair to everyone. The media plays a major role in whether lifers will get released. The minister's decision is partly based on whether newspapers will drum up a sense of moral panic at the thought of someone's release."
The difference between wife-killers like Joe O'Reilly and Brian Kearney – who recently lost his appeal for the murder of his wife Siobhan – and Gerald Barry and Ronnie Dunbar are stark. While the men who murdered their spouses in cold blood committed ruthless crimes that destroyed their families' lives, they do not pose the same threat to society as Manuela Riedo and Melissa Mahon's killers, both of whom indiscriminately raped and murdered vulnerable women. "We know that most wife-killers would not repeat offend," said a prison source. "But they took a life the same as some of the deranged and psychotic killers did. If they both took a life, why should they be treated any differently and ever get out?" Those convicted of killing innocent victims in gangland attacks are also more likely to spend longer behind bars, according to the source. "It leaves a bad taste in the mouth," he said. "Are we saying some people's lives are more valuable than others? Is the life of Shane Geoghegan and Roy Collins in Limerick worth more than a heroin addict murdered over a fix or a drug dealer shot dead in Finglas? Maybe they are."
It is understandable that the length of time life prisoners spend in Irish jails varies depending on the nature of the crime committed and whether the prisoner has rehabilitated.
"Just look at the case of MacArthur. After 26 years you would expect that he would be rehabilitated. But he is being treated as if he remains a danger to society," said Culleton. "Is a person sent to prison as a punishment or to rehabilitate? The official discourse is that prison should rehabilitate but it's often treated in the media as a measure of punishment only and politicians react to public opinion, which is determined by the press. The media's role in all of this is huge. Just look at the reaction when someone described as a 'monster' in the press is released. It leads to a witch hunt and obviously puts pressure on the minster never to let some people out for fear of the public reaction."
Michael Bambrick
But some of them do get out. The release of Michael Bambrick in April is a recent case in point. In the early 1990s he murdered two women and buried their bodies. He was sentenced on two counts of manslaughter to 18 and 15 years to run concurrently. Upon his release from Arbour Hill, a strong media contingent was lying in wait and soon there were complaints that he should never have seen the light of day. A few weeks ago, the release of another serial rapist provoked the same reaction. Michael Murray, who raped four women in just six days in Dublin and sexually assaulted two others, left Castlerea prison and a determined media tracked his every move in the following days. He served 13 years of an 18-year sentence.
The Irish Prison Services' (IPS) ethos is that incarceration should both punish and rehabilitate. There are 24 life sentence prisoners whose sentences pre-date 1990 and who have already served at least 18 years in custody.
In 1998, there were 98 'lifers' in the system, whereas at the beginning of this year, 265 inmates were life sentence prisoners.
"If you look at it clinically, people should be more careful about who they murder because the type of person you kill can determine how many years you'll do," said a prison source.
"It's not a good idea to kill attractive, middle-class women or middle-class people generally. It isn't as big a deal if you kill a drug addict or a known criminal in some cases.
"And women serving life, on the whole, are more likely to get out earlier than men, especially if they have kids. One case that's hard to call is Charlotte Mulhall. [She was convicted of murdering of Kenyan Farah Swaleh Noor]. She could be out after 15 years or she might never get out because it's such an infamous case. Who ever said the system was fair?"
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