The mother of murdered Irish boxing champion Kevin Sheehy is pleading with the Minister for Justice to reverse her decision to approve the transfer of her son’s murderer to a UK prison.
Tracey Tully took her campaign to the gates of the Dáil on Friday afternoon where she told reporters she believed her son would be training for the Olympics if he wasn’t brutally killed by Logan Jackson in 2019.
Ms Tully was backed by her local TD, Fianna Fáil veteran, Willie O’Dea, who said that he had raised the proposed transfer of Englishman Jackson back to an English jail with both the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, and Justice Minister, Helen McEntee.
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Mr O’Dea said he has got no satisfaction from the senior Government members.
The next court hearing date of her challenge to the Minister's decision is next Thursday, November 10.
Irish champion boxer Sheehy died after being repeatedly struck by a vehicle driven by Logan Jackson of Longford Road Coventry, England.
Jackson was convicted of Mr Sheehy's murder by a jury at the Central Criminal Court last December and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Following his conviction 31-year-old Jackson successfully applied to the Minister McEntee for a transfer from Ireland to a prison in the UK, where he will serve out the remainder of his sentence.
Kevin’s mother spoke to the media outside Leinster House flanked by young friends of her son.
She said: “If this murderer wasn’t in the country, I know for sure that my son would be training for the Olympics for his country, I know that for sure.
“That’s what Kevin’s mind was focused on, training for the Olympics and it would have been for his country.
“What’s being done to his memory… it’s an insult, it’s outrageous.
“I’m hoping that she (Minister McEntee) might reverse or she might listen to me or listen to someone today, that she might give us some….. The suffering, the waiting and waiting, to come up here is so draining.
“It’s neverending for us.”
Mr O’Dea has represented the family on the political front.
He was standing in solidarity with Ms Tully outside the gates of the Dáil.
The Limerick TD: “The Minister has it within her power to take it out of the domain of the courts.
“If the Minister decided today for example to reverse the decision, the court process would stop immediately.
“So again, I plead with the Minister for Justice to stop continuing to use taxpayers’ money to fight this unfortunate family who have suffered enough.”
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