{"id":383115,"date":"2026-03-13T12:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T12:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/383115\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T12:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T12:33:11","slug":"wife-killer-brian-kearney-granted-day-out-of-prison-as-victims-family-express-horror-at-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/383115\/","title":{"rendered":"Wife killer Brian Kearney granted day out of prison as victim’s family express horror at decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wife killer Brian Kearney<\/a> has been granted a day out of prison<\/a> – sending “shockwaves” to the family of his victim.<\/p>\n

The Irish Mirror has learned that evil killer Brian Kearney (67), who strangled his wife Siobhan (38) to death with a wire flex<\/a> at their home in Knocknashee in Goatstown in February 2006, is being granted a “compassionate” day out of prison to visit family in the coming days.<\/p>\n

It is understood that Kearney is being brought to a so-called “neutral venue” where he can meet family, while being escorted at all times by two prison officers before being returned to prison. The shocked family of Siobhan were informed of the move this week – leaving them angered and with questions.<\/p>\n

“We got a totally cold and callous email telling us that he\u2019s getting compassionate leave from prison with absolutely no explanation at all as to what this means,” Siobhan\u2019s sister Brighid told the Irish Mirror<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Brighid McLaughlin arrives at court for the trial of Brian Kearney in 2008(Image: Stephen Collins \/ Collins)<\/p>\n

“It has sent shockwaves through the whole family. We received no consultation at all. It was just a short email informing us. Now we\u2019re worried that he could be anywhere. I mean we could bump into him.”<\/p>\n

The bizarre move comes just a week after Siobhan\u2019s family spoke passionately to the Irish Mirror about their fight to keep Brian Kearney behind bars. Her heartbroken mother Deirdre told us how she blamed her cancer on the killer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I have cancer. I blame him. Everything was brought on from what happened to Siobhan. I think about her every day of my life,” Deirdre said.<\/p>\n

Siobhan\u2019s family have a scheduled meeting with the Parole Board just next month, as they are forced to once again plead with them to keep Kearney behind bars.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s getting worse over time. I’m getting older and it\u2019s just getting worse. We just stop and think how she was robbed of this marvellous life we have. It’s all gone because he decided in a mad moment to get rid of her,” Deirdre told us.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Siobhan Kearney was killed by her husband Brian<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s affected us so badly and he has no idea how much it has devastated us. It never goes away. I\u2019m going up to the parole board like I did the last time. It\u2019s very important that I see them,” she said.<\/p>\n

The devastated mother said she intends to tell the board that if they plan on releasing the ailing killer this time, then they\u2019d better understand how much that will impact her life.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ll tell them that if they intend to leave him out then they better put security at my door because I am terrified,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I am terrified and I really mean that. I\u2019m certainly afraid. I\u2019ll never get over what he did and how he walked away from it. I\u2019ll never forgive him for it.”<\/p>\n

\"\"Sign up to our new Crime Ireland newsletter and get exclusive content from Michael O’Toole and Paul Healy<\/p>\n

The Irish Mirror’s Crime Writers Michael O’Toole and Paul Healy are writing a new weekly newsletter called Crime Ireland. Click here to sign up<\/a> and get it delivered to your inbox every week<\/p>\n

Kearney\u2019s latest pending parole hearing will be his fourth since he was jailed for life in 2008.<\/p>\n

Evil killer Kearney murdered his wife because she intended to leave him. The monster strangled Siobhan in her room, then used a Dyson vacuum cleaner flex as a ligature before trying to hoist her over the en-suite door in her bedroom in an attempt to make it look like a suicide<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Their three-year-old son lay sleeping in the next room at the time and Siobhan\u2019s body was later discovered by her family who broke into the bedroom after failing to contact her. The prosecution alleged he killed Siobhan because she was planning to leave him, something that would have placed him under severe financial pressure.<\/p>\n

Kearney was handed down a life sentence after being found guilty by a majority verdict of 11 to 1 at the Central Criminal Court<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: <\/strong>Sign up here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wife killer Brian Kearney has been granted a day out of prison – sending “shockwaves” to the family…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,52,18,13,14,6,19,17,39379,11,12,15,16,5,58192,7,8],"class_list":["post-383115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-dublin","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-prison-service","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-prisons","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116221890142242562","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}