Courts

Life of Valerie French ‘taken in the cruelest, most violent and terrifying way possible’, brother says

James Kilroy sentenced to life in prison after failing to convince jury he was insane when he killed his wife

David French, brother of Valerie French, speaking outside the Central Criminal Court after James Kilroy was sentenced to life in prison for her murder. Photograph: Collins Courts
Eoin Reynolds
Mon Jul 29 2024 - 21:00

Valerie French was “savagely slaughtered” and died in terror at the hands of her husband James Kilroy, who has shown no remorse and tried to avoid accountability for her murder, the victim’s brother has told the Central Criminal Court.

David French, the deceased’s brother, said the family was traumatised that Ms French’s killer is a man they welcomed into their homes. He recalled identifying his sister’s “broken body” and seeing the injuries caused by Kilroy, who had strangled and stabbed her.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt on Monday sentenced Kilroy to the mandatory term of life imprisonment for murdering Ms French at their home at Kilbree Lower, Westport, Co Mayo, between June 13th and June 14th, 2019. Kilroy had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but a jury rejected that defence last week.

“I can still see the horror on her face as she lay on the mortuary slab. Valerie was savagely slaughtered. She was not resting in peace,” Mr French said. “Her life was taken in the cruellest, most violent and terrifying way possible and her broken body lies in a grave in west Cork. That is the impact.”

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Mr French said their mother, who was in “deep shock and could not come to terms with this evil act”, died soon after Valerie.

“I believe that for our mother the impact was a death sentence,” Mr French said. “My sisters and I have been consumed by this since the murder and there is no end in sight. We have lost someone who was a continual source of joy and loving consideration. Crimes like this have a ripple effect on relationships, employment and health. Our children have been deeply traumatised by the sudden loss of their beloved Aunt Valerie and haunted by thoughts of the killer who we welcomed into our family and as a guest in our homes.”

Mr Justice Hunt said the statement was one of the most impressive and eloquent he has heard and “clearly expresses the damage caused” by Kilroy. The victim was “devoted to her family, friends and community,” the judge said, adding that “her life was cruelly and prematurely terminated”.

The trial heard that early on June 14th, 2019, a man was having breakfast and looked out his window and saw Kilroy wandering naked through a field. Gardaí found him a short time later and he was taken to a psychiatric unit in Castlebar to be assessed under the Mental Health Act.

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Camilla Curtis told the trial that Kilroy had lacerations and bruises on his forearms and back. He said his wife had stabbed him, but Dr Curtis found no stab wound. He described various delusional beliefs and said he was “on a mission from God to kill his wife”.

He spoke of being watched by bodyguards and that he felt he had lived 50 years in one day. He also said he had stabbed his wife in the throat with a kitchen knife and claimed to believe she was “turning into a zombie” and that he feared the dead were going to get him.

Dr Curtis found that Kilroy did not have a mental disorder and did not meet the criteria for detention under the Act. He was discharged from the unit into Garda custody. While Dr Curtis was assessing Kilroy, gardaí called to his home, where they found Ms French’s bloodied body in a camper van.

State Pathologist Dr Linda Mulligan concluded that Ms French Kilroy died from ligature strangulation combined with blunt force trauma to the head and a stab wound to the neck.

Kilroy was assessed by various psychiatrists but within weeks of going into custody was deemed well enough to be detained in the general prison population rather than the Central Mental Hospital.

Kilroy claimed during the trial that he was suffering from a psychotic episode. Consultant psychiatrist Dr Ronan Mullaney diagnosed him with a cannabis-induced psychosis following years of cannabis use. However, Mr Justice Hunt has previously said that the wording of the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act does not allow a defence where a mental disorder is brought on by drug use.

The judge yesterday warned that cannabis use is “not completely risk free” and said there was “no doubt in my mind that use of drugs loomed large in this case”. However, he said the removal of responsibility for criminal acts under the Act is designed for people who are ill, “not those who get in a state on a self-induced basis”.

The evidence, he said, fell well short of attracting any defence under the Act.