MR JUSTICE PAUL Carney’s comments that there will be no “tunnel of hope” for Gerald Barry will offer some comfort to those who believe that the 29-year-old killer and serial rapist should never be released from jail.
The details of “this outrage” and the “quite extraordinary list of previous convictions” need “no reiteration by me”, Mr Justice Paul Carney told a packed court.
Shaven-headed Barry did not flinch nor show any signs of emotion when sentenced. He behaved in a similar fashion when sentenced for the murder of Manuela Riedo.
Before sentencing in the Riedo case, Barry’s defence counsel Martin Giblin had said he had come from a dysfunctional family which should have been taken into care, a point accepted by gardaí at the time.
Earlier this week, Det Insp Gerald Roche told the court that Barry’s mother had a drink problem and that most of his brothers had been in trouble with the law “but nothing of this order”.
However, the judge was having none of it. “So far as the accused’s dysfunctional background is concerned . . . this affords little or no mitigation,” he said.
Mr Justice Carney was equally dismissive of Barry’s claims that he was out of his head on drink and drugs when he carried out most of his crimes including the rape. Such a claim offered “no defence and no mitigation”, the judge stressed.
Ms Riedo will be remembered in a concert tonight in McGuinness’s pub in Basle, Switzerland, where The Wolfe Tones, The High Kings and The Kilfenora Céilí Band and others will play a benefit gig to raise funds for the foundation set up in her name earlier this year.
A further concert featuring The Chieftains and The Dubliners will be held in the O2 in Dublin on November 5th, which would have been Ms Riedo’s 20th birthday.
Hans-Peter Riedo, the father of Manuela, said: “This is very good news for us. As long as he stays in jail we will be happy. We hope he never gets out.”
Yesterday’s sentencing coincided with the 13th anniversary this week of the death of Tipperary-man Colm Phelan who was killed by Barry and others following an unprovoked attack in Eyre Square in July 1996. Barry got five years for violent disorder arising out of that crime.
Mr Phelan’s mother, Marie, said questions remained as to how Barry had been free to kill her son and Ms Riedo given his criminal record which also includes a sexual assault on his ex-partner and a two-year sentence for blinding a pensioner that he robbed.
“Had he been in prison all this time and all the offences that he caused, my son would be alive and so would little Manuela. The system should have kept him in jail,” she said.
Her daughter Colette described Barry as an “evil monster”. “I’ll only get peace when he is dead. We will leave him God to give him his proper punishment. Jail is too good for him,” she said.
Speaking outside the court, Supt Tom Curley from Galway Garda station said they were “delighted” that Barry received further life sentences for his crimes.
“Our thoughts are with his victims and his family at this stage. For the people of Galway, it is good to have him behind bars. Over a period of three months, he carried out some of the most vicious crimes, the rape and the murder of Manuela Riedo in October. Galway is a safer place for everyone without him.”
Barry appeared in court just two days after raping his French victim on a separate charge of assaulting his ex-partner. He was granted bail despite objections from gardaí. Supt Curley said: “The case was before the court that day and that’s it. We have to go with the decisions of the court. We pursued our other inquiries. We gathered our evidence, presented it to the court and the judicial system then deals with it.”