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	Brian Hennessy raped and strangled Sharon Whelan before torching the house which led to Zsara, seven, and two-year-old Nadia dying from carbon monoxide poisoning</p>
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	A man who murdered a mother and her two young children on Christmas morning is due for parole early next year, it emerged today.</p>
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	Brian Hennessy raped and strangled Sharon Whelan before torching the house which led to Zsara, seven, and two-year-old Nadia dying from carbon monoxide poisoning.</p>
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	The killer targeted the family at their home in Roscon, Windgap, Co Kilkenny, in 2008.</p>
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	Hennessy later told gardai he did it to avoid his girlfriend finding out he had sex with</p>
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	Sharon, 30, despite not knowing her.</p>
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	He revealed: &ldquo;I just strangled her with my two hands around her neck. I killed her in the living room.&rdquo;</p>
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	Now Sharon&rsquo;s devastated relatives are bracing themselves for the prospect of meeting him on the streets next year &ndash; just seven years after his conviction.</p>
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	Sharon&rsquo;s brother John, who is chairman of victims&rsquo; support group AdVic, said: &ldquo;Brian Hennessy raped and strangled Sharon and then remained in the house before he set two fires to cover his tracks.</p>
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	&ldquo;It was total self preservation to hide any evidence but it didn&rsquo;t work and the DNA evidence resulted in his arrest.&rdquo;</p>
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	His family is devastated Hennessy, from Windgap, will be eligible for release in a matter of months.</p>
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	John added: &ldquo;People can go for parole now after seven years.</p>
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	&ldquo;To allow someone who has been convicted of three murders to go for parole after seven years brings back all the pain and rawness for the family.</p>
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	&ldquo;The State should prevent families from having to go through this heartache.</p>
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	&ldquo;With the way that sentencing is now there is no deterrent out there at the moment.</p>
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	&ldquo;We have to live with the deaths of our loved ones every day. We are serving a life sentence for the rest of our lives.&rdquo;</p>
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	DNA evidence proved crucial in Hennessy&rsquo;s arrest and he was convicted of the three murders in November 2009.</p>
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	The temporary postman, who initially denied the killings but later entered a guilty plea, was 23 when he murdered the young family.</p>
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	He was originally sentenced to one life sentence for Ms Whelan&rsquo;s death and one for each of her daughters.</p>
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	This was successfully appealed by him in 2010 and he is now serving the three terms concurrently &ndash; meaning he is not serving any additional time behind bars for the sisters&rsquo; deaths.</p>
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	John said: &ldquo;He is now serving one life sentence for the three murders and my question to the powers that be is, &lsquo;Who is he serving the sentence for&rsquo;.</p>
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	&ldquo;No one has ever told me or my parents which one &ndash; is it Sharon or Nadia or Zsara?</p>
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	&ldquo;It nullifies the value of the other two lives. This man has wiped out one third of our family in one night and now he can go for parole in February or March of next year.&rdquo;</p>
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	John spoke of the &ldquo;cruelty&rdquo; of the criminal justice system, which allows for a murderer to apply for release after just seven years of a life sentence.</p>
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	He said: &ldquo;The strain and anxiety and stress that it puts on our grieving family knowing that he can go for parole in a few months is hard to bear.</p>
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	&ldquo;After seven years you have tried to move on a bit as a family and have tried to adjust and cope.</p>
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	&quot;Time doesn&rsquo;t heal. You just learn to cope, you learn to live in a different way.</p>
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	&quot;In our eyes two of our family members&rsquo; lives mean nothing to the State.</p>
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	John and AdVic are campaigning for a shake-up of the criminal justice system.</p>
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	He said: &ldquo;We are calling for changes to sentencing, parole and the bail policies which do not serve either families or society as a whole.</p>
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	&ldquo;However, so far we have got zero response from the Government.</p>
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	&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think the political will is there to change the current system.</p>
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	&ldquo;Victims are not being listened to and their voices are not being heard.&rdquo;</p>
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	AdVic is also campaigning for a mandatory minimum tariff of 15 years in the case of murder, with an upwards increment including the option of a life tariff without parole.</p>
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	It said: &ldquo;Nothing can bring Sharon and the girls back.</p>
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	&ldquo;Life is the most precious thing we have and those who choose to take it away deserve stronger</p>
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	sanctions.</p>
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	&quot;If someone makes a conscious decision to end that we must look at ourselves seriously as a country and as a modern society and say is it good enough for victims and their families that this is how we dealt with that? I don&rsquo;t think it is.</p>
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	&ldquo;In the case of Sharon and the girls, a change in sentencing won&rsquo;t make any difference as the law cannot be applied retrospectively but for the next family it could and changes in sentencing would make our society a safer place.&rdquo;</p>
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	AdVic is a support service for families bereaved by murder, manslaughter and fatal assault.</p>
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	It also provides information and help for people.</p>
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	<a href="http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/man-who-murdered-mum-two-6598881">http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/man-who-murdered-mum-two-6598881</a></p>
