The father of Cameron Blair, a student murdered at a house party in Cork five years ago, has criticised the legal system for shifting “more and more towards the rights of people who commit atrocious crimes against society”.
Noel Blair told The Irish Times he had to speak out after the Supreme Court last week ruled that the young man serving a life sentence for his son’s murder could remain anonymous.
The defendant was 17 when he pleaded guilty to murdering Cameron (20) by stabbing him in the neck at a house on the Bandon Road in Cork City on January 16th, 2020.
“We are very, very disappointed with what has happened, with him being protected like that,” Mr Blair said. “The anonymity is like a cloak over him and not just him – it covers his family and the whole system.”
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He said parents could be brought to court for failing to ensure their child attends school, but not for failing to ensure they behave lawfully.
“How come they can punish the parents for one thing and not another?” Mr Blair asked.
The age of criminal responsibility is 12, meaning younger children cannot be charged with an offence except in cases of murder, manslaughter, rape or aggravated sexual assault, where those aged 10 or 11 can be charged.
Once deemed criminally responsible, children who break the law may be prosecuted but not their parents.
Criticising the manner in which the murder trial began within months of Cameron’s death, thus ensuring the accused would be tried as a juvenile, Mr Blair said he believed “too many” mitigating factors were available in such cases.
Speaking generally on murder trials involving young men, he said: “The Guards bring the boy in, he walks out, they get reports done, say ‘Daddy drinks too much Guinness’; little Johnny comes in with his legal team and when they have no other options he pleads guilty in the end and gets 30 per cent off his sentence. The judge tells him he’s a great boy for pleading guilty.”
Mr Blair said he now felt there was no way now for his family to achieve accountability from the family of their son’s murderer.
“That’s the end of it now. I had to speak out to get it off my chest. It’s not just our family. If you go back over the years, the amount of other families in this position. But you can’t beat them [the legal system]. We are very, very disappointed with what has happened.”
He saw little prospect of rehabilitation for murderers in prison.
“In my eyes someone who murders someone should never be out again. Every day of our lives as long as we live, we live with this. Cameron was stolen deliberately from us by someone who is going to gym, has access to television and all the facilities – all the things so many young people can’t have, can’t afford. The system has come more and more towards the rights of people who commit atrocious crimes against society.”
He said people convicted of serious, violent crimes should serve much longer sentences.
“Put them in jail and forget about them, and keep the good people who are in for fines out of jail,” he said.
“They [murderers] don’t deserve the amount of mollycoddling they get. The money spent on them should go to help people in poverty who don’t get any shoulder up at all.”
Asked how his wife Kathy and younger son were, he said: “They are destroyed. Kathy is an amazing mother, great wife, the backbone of the house. It breaks my heart to see her hurt so much.
“Me? I’ll keep my eye on the judicial system. This is not going to ruin my life. I am not going to be continually hunting justice. You could get caught doing that and forget to keep your eye on the more important things.”
