Valerie French, a mother of three very young boys, was “savagely slaughtered” by her husband, the Central Criminal Court in Dublin was told last year.
In a victim impact statement read in court, her brother David also said that her murder in June 2019 “was violent and prolonged, with multiple assaults and several major injuries ... She died in terror for her own life and the lives of her children.” He added that the fatal stroke suffered by their mother, also named Valerie, five months later, was “a direct consequence” of Valerie’s murder.
James Kilroy, originally from Oldcastle, Co Meath, inflicted 57 wounds on Valerie when he murdered her outside their home near Islandeady, close to Westport, Co Mayo. She was the third Irish woman whose partner was charged with murder in the first half of 2019, a year in which 14 children lost their mother through domestic homicide. She was one of more than 274 women killed violently by a man in Ireland over the past 30 years, an average of more than nine a year.
[ People convicted of killing their spouse face losing guardianship rightsOpens in new window ]
Kilroy, who is serving a life sentence for Valerie’s murder, retains legal guardianship of the three boys that he abandoned when he fled on the night of the murder. He also has full ownership of their former home, whose mortgage Valerie’s salary paid and which is mortgage-free under a life assurance policy, David French writes.
As godfather to Valerie’s sons, he attended all of the preliminary court and inquest hearings and every day of the trials. He wants Irish laws changed to ensure that men who kill their partners are automatically prevented from having a say in the children’s lives.
His distressing and important book is “dedicated to the silenced women”. It distils much of David French’s extensive reading about femicide and domestic abuse in Ireland and abroad. It will not ease the shock and horror of the family and friends of the next women to be murdered by a male partner, but it will give them valuable advice and it will show them that they are not alone in their suffering and loss.
