A brother of slain Irishman David Walsh has said the release of killer Tina Cahill from prison won’t change anything for him as “nothing will bring him back.”
Cathrina ‘Tina’ Cahill, from Co Wexford, was sentenced to eight years in jail for stabbing her fiance David ‘Daithi’ Walsh in the neck, taking his life at their home in Sydney, Australia in February 2017.
Tina is now set to be released from prison and deported back to Ireland on Thursday - on the fifth anniversary of the killing - after serving less than four years behind bars.
But in an exclusive interview, David Walsh’s grieving brother Paddy said Cahill’s release won’t change anything for him - and he will never get over his horrific death.
“Whatever will happen to her now and whether she got life or not - it’s not going to bring my brother back.
“I don’t think there’s any justice there. We just want to hold him and hug him and feel him again and so it doesn't matter where she is, whether she’s walking down the street or whether she’s locked up.
“She’s done the deed. She’s taken his life from all of us, his family, his kids, brothers, nieces, nephews and mum and dad at the time.,” he said.
And speaking from the family home in Enniscorthy, Paddy, who says he named his daughter after his slain brother, told how they have been torn apart by his death.
“Some people would look for justice and some people would say an eye for an eye and all this kind of stuff, but to me it was all just irrelevant. My brother is gone.
“To me that’s just my opinion and other family members might have a different opinion but that’s just mine.
“But there’s three girls left behind there, and his nieces, nephews, brothers and his little sister who are all just completely torn apart.
Asked what his feelings were towards Cahill, who is set to return to her family home in New Ross, Paddy said:
“None no. No feelings. It’s just a name to me. It’s just somebody I don’t know who I never met, and it’s just all these things that I heard afterwards.
And tragically, Paddy revealed that he and his family were due to visit David days before he was killed.
“We were booked to go over and see him that week. On Monday we were booked to go over and visit him.
“We would have been the first visitors that he would have had over there.
“But my young fella’s passport was out of date and we had to reschedule the flights.
“We were on the way back home from the passport office when we got the phone call and got the news then,” he said.
The devastated brother said he carries his grief about David’s death every day - and that he has a photo of him in his room that gives him some comfort that he’s there.
“It’s just been surreal really. It’s never gone away for me. I’ve a little thing up in my room and it has a picture of my brother, then my other brother Jonathan and my Dad.
“So they are very much there with me every day.”
He also said he sometimes smells a scent which reminds him of his brother and the moment he learned of his death.
“I said to my wife here the other day, can you smell anything?. I just get a smell that I know when they’re close.
“No one can explain that but it’s just a smell that I got at the time of his passing.
“I suppose you can’t really describe it. It’s an intense, unique smell to that time in my life and I just know he’s close by,” he said.
During Cahill’s sentencing, the presiding judge had told how her relationship with David Walsh was “volatile” and that it involved aggression on both sides.
Cahill had told how the incident occurred when David attacked a man who she had invited back to their house in Padstow, Sydney - along with two female housemates, following a night out.
Cahill, who had also been drinking, said she tried to stop the attack, and she then took out a large knife from the cutlery drawer and stabbed her fiance - ultimately killing him.
At the time she had been on a good behaviour bond after she was convicted of recklessly wounding him with a glass candle holder in 2015.
And in our interview today, David’s brother says he was upset to read social media comments about the case - and that people do not realise his brother was the victim of attacks by Cahill in the past before.
And he told how he didn’t realise his brother was in such a violent relationship until after his death.
“We didn't know about any of that. Any time we were Skyping he was bubbly and bouncing and everything was good."
Speaking five years on from his brother’s killing, Paddy also told how he named his daughter after his brother - and he now sees her as a sign from God.
"We cope and I cope I suppose because I have a daughter now that was conceived at the time my brother passed.
“She was born when my father passed and I named her Dotty. I thought it was going to be a boy. I was naming him David after my brother but it was a girl so I named her Dotty.
“When we looked it up it was ‘’gift from God.’ That’s what it translates to.
“So she, to me, that's given to me to help me. That’s what I believe anyway. To help me cope.”
And he told how he now focuses on his children and their future as he deals with the grief.
“You throw yourself into something to keep yourself busy. Every day you lay in the bed and don’t want to do anything.
“But it’s just learning to live with it and deal with it. It’s just throwing yourself into something like the kids. This is always a busy house. There’s always coming and going.
“My father died after my brother. I’ve a little sister as well that left to mind. It’s all of that that keeps me busy,” he said.
Paddy also said he wanted to clear up claims that his brother fled Ireland to live in Australia - saying he simply wanted another chance at life.
“He never had any peace here. People who really knew him knew he had a good heart. He was so kind to anyone that was close to him.
“He went to Australia and he left his kids here. I suppose it was going to be a short-term thing that developed into longer than he thought.
“He just went for a fresh start. This is part of the reason he actually left,” he said.
In an interview from jail in 2017, Cahill said she was upset about being in prison, but added: “I have to serve some penalty for what I did.
"I can’t really remember what happened. Of course I regret it, I’m still shocked, I loved him.”
