The brother of a woman who was murdered by her husband has described Tusla’s concerns about legislation removing his parental rights as “madness”. 

In 2024, a jury unanimously found James Kilroy guilty of murdering Valerie French Kilroy, his wife and the mother of his three children. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, Ms French Kilroy’s brother, David French, said he remembers his sister as “absolutely great fun” and was also “very caring” to those she knew. 

Although it has been nearly seven years since her death, the pain is still very raw. 

“Every new day is a day that she's not getting,” he explained. 

“It's not like he did a thing six years ago, it still has repercussions every single day.” 

Valerie French Kilroy. 30th July 2024. Image: Supplied.

Although Kilroy is serving a life sentence for murdering their mother, he still has guardianship over his three children. 

It is, Mr French added, a “ludicrous situation” that a killer should have any form of control over the children who he deprived of a mother. 

In recent years, the family has campaigned hard for ‘Valerie’s Law’, which would remove guardianship from the children’s violent father. 

“He's informed where they are,” Mr French explained.  

“He's involved in major decisions and that has ongoing implications for whoever they're living with, for their own privacy and the privacy of the people with them.” 

Mr French continued that while a person convicted of murder would lose guardianship of their children, it would not preclude the family from maintaining contact with them if they wished. 

“It's about suspending the rights of the murderer or manslaughter convict to reach in and know things about the children,” he said. 

“If whoever is minding the children thinks a relationship is important, then they can totally reach out to him, have a relationship.

“This is about taking a right away from him to know what's going on and to be able to lean in and interfere even further in their lives.” 

Legislation

Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan has received Cabinet approval for legislation that would remove the parental rights of people convicted of murdering their children’s other parent. 

However, it is understood that Tusla has objected, raising concern that “children’s best interests” are served by maintaining contact with their birth parent. 

The Irish Times has seen emails in which Tusla staff write that the Department of Justice has ignored their “many objections” to the legislation. 

Mr French believes that the organisation is suffering from “misconceptions” about what is proposed. 

“They need to listen to lived experience,” he urged. 

“They need to listen to the children who are, in our case, they're absolutely frightened of the killer. 

“They need to listen to the adults who've kind of grown out of this.

“And they really need to listen to the research; there's recent research on this that shows perpetrators really get privileged in this situation - and that's madness.” 

Tusla has been contacted for comment.

Main image: A man in handcuffs. Picture by: PA Archive/PA Images.