The brother of murdered Ann Walsh has told the Justice Minister not to give “false hope” to victims' families and ensure minimum terms of up to 30 years are handed down to evil killers.
New reforms by Helen McEntee’s department could see offenders convicted of the most serious crimes, including murder, serve lengthy sentences without parole.
The minister said that judges will be given powers to set minimum tariffs of between 15 and 30 years before prisoners would be allowed to go before a parole board.
Under the current law, a prisoner sentenced to life imprisonment is eligible for parole when they have served at least 12 years of their sentence.
Stephen Walsh has been calling for minimum sentencing without parole for some time.
He and his family have had to relentlessly fight to keep his sister’s callous killer Raymond Donovan behind bars.
And although his family will not benefit from it, he reckons the move may relieve some of the pain which his family have been put through after Ann was taken from them.
He told the Irish Mirror: “The minister has to stand with it and follow through on it. Families can’t be given false hope.
“Raymond Donovan destroyed our lives.
“It is my honest opinion that he is a danger to society. And it’s about time something like this should be brought in and the judges should be passing sentences of at least this. And these killers shouldn’t be going before any parole board before that minimum sentence is served.
“It’s happening day in and day out and if this was brought in, it’ll stop a lot of this.”
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