The mother of murdered Irish champion boxer, Kevin Sheehy, said on Friday she will seek a face-to-face meeting with Minster for Justice Simon Harris to ask him to reconsider his decision granting her son’s killer a transfer to a UK jail.
Minister Harris said yesterday that he was obligated under international human rights law to accede to killer Logan Jackson’s transfer application.
Mr Sheehy’s mother, Tracey Tully claimed her human rights have been “breached” and “ignored” by the State for granting Jackson’s transfer request, which he made after just eight weeks into his life sentence.
Jackson, 30s, from Longford Rd, Coventry, repeatedly struck Mr Sheehy, (20), with a 4x4 vehicle, in an unprovoked attack, on July 1st, 2019 and he was sentenced to life at Limerick Prison in December 2021.
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Speaking Friday in Limerick, Tracey Tully said: “I will not give up the fight for justice.”
She pledged to continue to investigate all legal avenues to try to prevent Jackson from being repatriated to the UK.
Ms Tully said Jackson should serve most or all of his sentence in Ireland, the country where he murdered her son, was convicted by a jury and sentenced by an Irish court.
“I want a meeting with Minster Harris. I want him to consider reversing the decision he made Thursday. I want to know why, why,” Ms Tully said.
“[Kevin’s murder] is coming up on four years now and I have not been allowed my human rights and my family’s human rights to grieve, because you can’t heal from what you don’t understand, and I do not understand this decision.”
“I feel like my soul is being destroyed, I am back in this nightmare.”
“My son was a five-time Irish boxing champion, he was reared very well, his [priority] in life was to put his town and his city on the map, and at a very young age he knew this was possible – Kevin was primed and ready for the Olympics and it is such a huge, huge let down.”
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Ms Tully said Jackson “brutally massacred” her beloved son who she said had lived for sport and his family.
She said the State had not shown her family respect and because of this she has not been able “to pick up the pieces” after their loss.
“As I said, you cannot heal from what you don’t understand and I don’t understand any of it – I feel absolutely bamboozled,” she said.
Ms Tully praised gardaí for bringing her son’s killer to justice but she said the justice system, and the Minister for Justice, failed to adequately communicate with her about her son’s case.
“I’m worried about other families that this could happen to,” Ms Tully said.
Her friend and fellow justice campaigner Mary Fitzpatrick whose son Michael (19) was stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack in Limerick in 1999, said: “Some people can’t deal with coping with the effects of a murder inflicted on them out of the blue.”
“I know parents that have taken their lives or who have ended up in terrible situations because they didn’t know what to do, and thank God Tracey didn’t go down that route.”
“There needs to be a change, a clear transparent and open communication from all departments involved, to the victims families, so that something like this won’t happen again to somebody else,” Ms Fitzpatrick said.
Ms Tully said Jackson remains a key witness in her son’s murder investigation and he should not leave this jurisdiction.
“Logan Jackson is still a part of a very active and ongoing investigation in relation to others [allegedly] connected to the murder, so how can the minister just let him leave our country – it’s unbelievable really,” Ms Tully said.
“While the minister says he had ‘great difficulty’ in agreeing to allow Logan Jackson to serve the remainder of his time in the UK, [Jackson] actually applied only eight weeks after his conviction.”
“The Minister also makes reference to the ‘particular circumstances of this case’, and that it was necessary to allow the transfer – I’m sorry, but this is all so wrong.”
Reliable sources said Jackson has been informed his life is in danger and that there are concerns for his security and the security of others while he is in Limerick Prison.
The Irish Prison Service said it “does not comment on individual prison cases”.
Ms Tully, whose son had absolutely no links to Jackson, said her family are not behind any threat to Jackson: “Some have implied that [Jackson] is under a death threat and he is under prison solitary confinement but he is not under any death threat from us,” she said.