Retired detective on ‘You take a life, you give yours in return’
A retired detective inspector believes a murder conviction should mean the killer spends the rest of his or her life in prison.
Pat Marry led the investigations into the murders of Rachel O’Reilly, Niall Dorr, and Irene White, among others, and retired after 33 years of service last year.
He says if he was in a position to create a sentencing system, he would set mandatory sentencing with different custodial terms depending on whether the conviction is murder or manslaughter.
He said the families of people “snatched” from them in such violent circumstances know those serving life sentences can currently apply for parole after seven years. “It upsets families and brings the whole thing back. It causes a lot of heartache so I always believe that if you preplan a murder and are convicted, you should do life imprisonment and never get out,” he said.
In his recently published book, , Mr Marry said: “In other words, you take a life, you give yours in return.”
In cases where someone is an accomplice but didn’t pull the trigger, he said they should serve 35 years before parole.
For manslaughter, where a killing is unintended, he suggests a mandatory sentence of 10 to 25 years at the discretion of the judge.
He thinks such policies could be a deterrent.
If you had to do 10 years before being eligible to apply for parole, that might just stop a guy throwing a punch.
has been shortlisted in An Post Irish Book Awards in the Ireland AM popular non-fiction book of the year category.
It was published in September and is one of the best- selling non-fiction books in Ireland.
