Appeals and Life After Prison

Hello there and welcome to Murtder Most British. I'm Zach Helli'm Rachel. Hello and welcome. Yes, welcome. Glad to have you here So this week we are off to Northern Ireland. Yeah, Im back this week. I wasn't in last week. Oh yeah, how was your day off? How was your day off. It was lovely. It was really nice Obviously I do miss. I do enjoy doing this so ye Yeah, a nice day off for me. was Yeah that very enjoyable. That was definitely a case for Fauna to jump in Yeah with all the witchy spooky stuff. So that was that was a really really fun episode to do. So Now we're back with the host with the most Calm down, boy, calm down. R So Before we step into today's case s just a small request from us. If you'd like to support the show directly and unlock ad free episodes, bonus cases, twenty four hour early access Q and As and live streams, you can join us over on Patreon Patreon. com sllash, Murder my British, Podghoused You'll find all our socials, discord and Patreon in the link tree in the description below If you enjoy these stories that we tell here in the archive Please follow the show and leave a five star rating. It genuinely helps others discover what we do Yes, definitely. and your support keeps the archive open and ensures no story is ever forgotten This episode contains discussion of domestic murder coercive control, sexual violence and black maail allegations also includes references to suicide So some listeners may find this content distressing Listener discretion is strongly advised. And let's get to the story in a place where people cross the border every day disappearing did not always look impossible Sometimes there was a reason Sometimes there was a rumor Sometimes There was a lie So when Jerry McGinley finished in August of two thousand two There was a story ready made. already at once They had left before dawn Afraid he was about to be set up again At first is sounded possible But the longer he stayed gone The more the story Carry troubled marriage A hidden affair and a house where too many things were already changing Pace by pieace the explanation began to fall apart Gerald McKinley known as Jerry came from Mana Hamilton in County Laterrim from a family later described locally as respectable People who knew him spoke of him as a devoted son and a father deeply attached to his two daughters By the summer of two thousand, he was thirty four years old built a life that moved easily across the border between the Republic and Northern Ireland wororking first in haulage and later in furniture. He came across as energetic and ambitious Always on to the next deal, the next vehicle The next plan But there was another side to him too In nineteen eighty five, Jerry was convicted of raping the wife of a GAarda officer and sentenced to nine years in prison He served time in Arbor Hill and Cassarea then later moved to Eescillon after his release That conviction, though never really stopped following him around Yeah, I wouldn't have thought that it, you know, that's quite a strong conviction. So yeah, you you're being P people would have been you saw what'd you go to jail for? U that's that's really tough I mean, I'm not I don't feel sorry for him. No I shouldn't have done something like that. ex fucking horrific. It' a long time out and the people that knew him probably would have been like, co. Where have you been? I haven't seen you in like nine years u That helps explain why he was later described as a man who had built up suspicion and enemies on both sides of the border. Then there was Julie McKinley. She was younger than Jerry and came from what later accounts described as a stable and respected local family As a teenager, she had been injured in the Eescillin bomb of nineteen eighty seven in which eleven people were killed and sixty three were injured The twelfth victim later died after spending years in a coma Jesus Yeah, it was quite A horrific time fucking bad. Well, a few years later, she met Jerry By the mid nineteen nineties, they were married. They lived in Deragen near Belina Mallard and had two young daughters. Shannon and Carly. Julie had worked in customer service. British teecom And outwardly, they looked like any other ordinary household Children work routine evenven if the marriage underneath it was much less stable Well, undero the surface there had already been infideles pereriods of separation. and years of strain. In nineteen ninety seven, things got so bad that Gerry attempted suicide By the end of the nineteen nineties, this was not a marriage going through one bad spell It was a relationship that had already been under serious pressure for years And by then, the strain in the marriage had begun to bleed into the world around it including business Jerry had moved into the furniture trade in Eescillon. And it was there that Michael Monahan came into the picture He was older Married and had a family of his own in Cy Slago He was soon in regular contact with both Jerry and Julie In time, That working relationship gave way to something far more personal. Mm. Uh oh. Yeahah. Well by early two thousand, It did not take long for people to notice the pattern Witnesses later described Julie turning up specifically to see Makan Mhm offten, shortly after he arrived at work sometometimes several times a day It did not take long for people to realize that she was there for him. Yeah, just for him You know I mean, if, you know That's not being It's a bit too close to horom, isn't it? Yeah, that's not being, you know, secretive about it. she shows ups like right after you get to work, you're like, Hey, what are you doing here? I'm here to see you Wow, and everybody around going stuff on Yeah, they clearly got some sort of relationship going Oh yeah Well, some people also recalled hearing that Julie was unhappy in her marriage She wanted out and was even talking about getting as far away as Australia. retty bad if you want to travel all the way from here to as well from Northern Ireland to Australia. Yeah, I'm going to get so fucking far away from you that I'm going to move to Australia Whatever had started between her and Monahan was no longer innocent by then It had become a full blown affair People later said that they had seen them together in parked cars around the Tempo Road businessus park And one witness said they saw them having sex in a car outside the furniture business.am. There wass a bit of dog in there. Well well, come on. walking past st and all this. Yeah, but they're right outside the business that your husband owns. What are you doing? That's not going toistrig it She't care, does she? I guess not Getting her kicks. Well, the affair That was the only one part of the bigger picture There were also repeated claims that Jerry and Julie were running a blackmail scheme with Julie allegedly taking men back to hotel rooms, including rooms at the Fort Lodge and having sex with them while Jerry secretly filmed the encounters Some of those, yees, some of those tapes were then allegedly used to extort money from those men At least one man was said to have paid two and a half thousand pounds to stop the video getting out and even Every corner of that world is hard to pin down now. ure by two thousand is clear enough Secrecy, pressure. constant risk of exposure. Good Lord They're into some whoop Crazy shit Yes But then if he's, you know, maybe Jerry is not actually a hundred like worried about her having this affair if he's actually willing to let her sleep with other men and You know Well, that seems more like a go do this so we can get some money. seems like he's in control of doing that sort of side of things to. Yeah. kindind of controlling her to do things that maybe she doesn't want to do M Well, then in January of two thousand, something happened that clearly shook him Jerry was stopped after the guardee were tipped off by an informant that he was transporting drugs across the border Despite the fact that he was actually traveling across the, you know, into the south on legitimate business. to sell a lorry What was found under this driver's seat was meant to look devastating But it soon became clear that it was not what it had seemed at first In fact Part of what was supposed to be hard drugs turned out to be kitchen spices. and the wider cllaim of a major drug run Please fell apart. Wow Jerry was told he was unlikely to face any sort of prosecution and that there was no question of prison time He came away believing someone had tried to frame him yeah, I should expect that. it's just kitchen spices. you're not going to get Prison time for smuggling kitchen spices. Well, I mean trying to set someone up like that and just putting buuc an oregano or something. This looks like weed. Oh yeah, here we go. Imagine it. All like, here's some baking powder. looks like It looks like cocaine, hu? Jesus Christ. Well, after that, he wouldn't let it go. He contacted the guardi repeatedly pressed for the identity of the informant and spoke about the whole thing as something done to him rather than some piece of bad luck The fact that the case was going nowhere did not sell him either What mattered now was who had tried to do it And in one later conversation, he warned that if anything happened to him, a lot of things would come out and the guardy would know he had been set up. Oh yeah, it's pretty obvious, but if you can't really trace exactly who it was or something like if it's just a anonymous tip over the phone or whatever. Yeah. But then what with his previous conviction, you know, who's to say, you know, it is possible the gu Godardie or Godardie would it? Gardie. Gardie. Um You know, that he had raped the wife of You know, who say he ain't trying to set him up? Do I mean, after all eas he is just to get some revenge Wh know Well also with the cops there were like, no, no, no, this this looks like a setup where we're not, you know I' try to screw you over for it. Jerry needs to just drop it. I mean, it was like some spices, a bit of inconvenience, Do you know what I mean? He didn't go to jail But then it's like, well, how farther are these people gonna go A they got to go further than that Other reporting went further and cast it as an earlier attempt to get him out of the way So by August of two thousand several strands were' already tangled together marriage in trouble? fair that was no longer really hidden Money problems. Allegations of blackmail and Jerry's growing conviction that somebody close to him had moved against him Well on Saturday, the twelfth of august two thousand, Jerry brought the clothes that he would wear that night a shirt, jeans and shoes He was seen at the furniture shop and appeared to be in good spirits sppoke about the days ahead business an orthopedic bed he meant to supply to Robert Elliot I'm getting a whole new fit to go out and shit Well, that evening, Jerry arranged for a babysitter Julie later said she made him a hot whiskey Before they left for the Fort Lodge hotel I mean, room temperure, Wh with some ice well, I guess ' throw some honey in Well, Monahghan was there, and so was Patrick McPadden A Belina Moorean who was then living with Monahan in a flat on Anne Street in E Anescillan Well that night, Jerry drunank about six to eight points, but not, it seems, to a level that was wildly unusual for him At about two thirty in the morning, he and Julie arrive back at Derryagen. Julie going into the house first She later said that she had phoned ahead from the hotel to say that they would be late But the babysitter said that she never received the call Julie then drove the babysitter home. As they were leaving, the babysitter caught a brief glimpse of a man in a white t shirt coming around the side of the house and going inside When she asked where Jerry was, Julie said he was around the back of the house Nothing in their brief exchange hinted at what was coming next? Hm Sometime in the early hours of the thirteenth of August, after Jerry had gone to bed, the violence began He was almost certainly asleep when the first blow landed The medical evidence later suggested that the strike hit his forehead with such tremendous force that it likely knocked him unconscious straight away He had no warning and in all probability, no real chance to defend himself He was hit again and again with a heavy blunt object Jerry died right there in his own home while his two young daughters slept nearby. Jesus Very br Yeah, but I mean, I thought of it like He didn't know what happened N, you know, like if the first hit just completely blacked out Yeah. And then he didn't know what happened. Wh, you know, I think if anything, you would want that. you wouldn't really necessarily want to know what's going on. U if it's going to be something that's going to result in death Yeah. I'd rather be not and unconscious and not actually be aware of what the hell they're doing to me. Yeah. But then also on the other side is cowardly. Yeah. abbsolute coward Definitely. a fucking peoplee that did that just Cowards What followed was not panic It was concealment Jerry's body was moved out of the house He was stripped of clothing and personal items Wrapped in black plastic sheeting and taken across the border into county Laterom He was left in a remote woodland near Balinamore in the hope that he would never be found Back and Daryyagen The room where Jerry had been killed altered quickly. and traces of that night were removed Well, and around Jerry's disappearance, an explanation was soon being given story was that he had got up early on Sunday morning, taking one thousand pounds in cash and gone off in a republic registered car with another man because he feared being set up by the guardian again He drew directly on the fear he had already been voicing since Black Lion To anyone hearing it at a distance, it had just enough logic to sound possible But That story did not hold for long H So by mid August of two thousand Jerry's family were no longer thinking of this as a temporary disappearance hisis father, Gerald Sr.. had been in nearly daily contact with him. And when that suddenly stopped Alarm set in quickly Tuesday night The fifteenth of August Julie had phoned to say Jerry was gone To those who knew him best Something about it just didn't sit right Police initially handled it as a m in person inquiry, but Jerry was not formally reported missing by Julie until the seventeenth of August F days after he had last been seen alive. By that stage, officers were not starting with a blank page becausecause Julie had already given a detailed account of where Jerry was supposed to have gone and why Quite early on Parts of that story began to fray When an RUC or Royal Ultstra Cstabulary One one of their officers later came to the house over a fifty pound parking fine. Julie simply said Jerry had gone away for a while. aroundround the same time A neighbor who had been rebuilding a vintage tractor with Jerry was so unsettled and so put out by Julie's attitude that he threatened to report Jerry missing himself If she did not. Jerry's family were also starting to push for answers of their own. His father and brother went to see Monahghan who had said that he had last seen Jerry when the shop had closed on the Saturday evening and claimed that he had not been at the house on the Sunday But the more people asked, the less straightforward the story seemed. Yeah I mean, geez, the neighbor was more concerned than she was. Yeah. It's like playing with the fuck? Go report it missing or I'm gonna to do it. Well, then attention shifted more sharply to Deragin Within days, investigators found a house that did not sit easily with the story of a voluntary disappearance. the marital bedroom. been rapidly stripped and refitted. And police would later say they believed evidence was already being destroyed at that point On that same Sunday afternoon on the thirteenth Harry McGley saw Julia at Mullin Market He said she looked went straight to a betting stall bought fresh beddting It behaved as though there was nothing out of the ordinary to explain. H Uh oh Well, later that same day, when the babysitter and her sister returned a child's squad bike Julie came outside with the children instead of letting them in One of the sisters said it was the only time that had ever happened and that Julie seemed like she wanted to get rid of them Yeah it's like, you know, usually I let you guys in, but no cup of tea for you. Eone's coming in this house you know, Bye U inside The bedroom had been repainted, refurnished and filled with new curtains. Josephine McGlroy later identified them as curtains that she had previously given to Monahan. Well She also said that Julie was evasive about where they had come from Around the same time, Miguelrooy said Julie had asked her prison was like and what it took put somewhere in there Oh, that's not suspicious. Yeah. Why would you ask, you know, if you're you would only ask that question, Oh, what's jail likeug if you're genuinely interested in their experience Oh. You know you've done something that you may go to jail for Well, my husband's been missing for a few days and that Yeah. What's prison like? What does it exactly take for them to put you in jail Yes, so you fucking suspicious. Yeah I It just seems very, very suspicious Well Now, Jerry's mobile phone, passport and wedding ring had been left behind as well. taken together. Those were not the signs of a man who had tidily walked away from his own life Witnesses also said Monahghan was speaking as if Jerry would not be coming back almost immediately after his disappearance There was also evidence placing both Monahghan and McPadden the house that Sunday. that he said that he wasn't there. Yep. Yeah He later said They had gone there under the pretense of buying a van Yeah ' been told 's Now, we weren't there. So course that tell you inconsistencies. Yeah N keep your things straight. Yeah, if you're telling the truth on something, you there's not going to be no inconsistencies in your story No matter who you're talking to. It's harder It's harder to remember the lies Exactly than it is to the truth. People still still don't think about that, you know? No matter how rehearsed you think you are, you're going to mess up. The amount of, you know, crimes that we've seen like edon stuff and read about They they just all donon't think. logically at all. The lies fall apart so quickly. And this is what makes police so flipping clever because they're just like, okay You said this and now you're saying that. so clearly, you're not telling the truth. Well, there was like that episode of body cam stuff last night. Yeah where the guy was like, I've been a police officer twenty five years. I've been lied to so much. you've lied to me. It's not going to be the last time I've lied to. But I know that people are lying to me You just can't they they're soful trained in having the instinct to be lie detectors. They can tell whether you're lying or not, you know They look at everything, body language. You know, what you've said to one person, what you're saying to another. Yeah, honestly Well, Sergeant William Stehvenson later said that he asked Julie whether she wanted to report Jerry missing and whether she had a photograph of him but she didn't provide one Suspicion grew quickly in the next eleven days after Jerry's disappearance By the twenty fourth of August, this was no longer a missing person case, but a murder investigation Yeah I would say so Well, the investigators dug deeper And they found that Julie had five mobile phones in two thousand I had oneon and that was enough. Yeah Three of them were in her own name O whose names in the other two aliases. N. Wh knows? I mean Maybe Jerry got him J I and put him in his name, but That's like drug dealer shit. Like I got five. suspicious shit Well, one of them reportedly contained graphic love messages between her and Monanne. Oh, they're secret love phones. Yeah Police also found writing in Monahghan's notebook that appeared to be love messages to Julie And on a phone linked to him, there was a message reading, quote, Mick, I love you. Right Well, there was money in the background too. The business was under strain and there were debts. But Jerry was also insured for three hundred ten thousand pounds. A lot of money Alongside the affair and everything else already circling the case, that was another possible motive that investigators couldn't ignore Also working through what had happened to the clothes Jerry was said to have worn when he left the same shirt, jeans and shoes he had brought the previous day and worn to the Fort Lodge Police later said that they brought matching items and that debris recovered from the yard fires was consistent with those clothes also found charred hinges from wardrobe doors that had been taken off in the bedroom Yeah Well, the Black Liones drug stop also looked different once police began going back over Jerry's final weeks In that time, he had been trying to work out who had tipped off the guardee and set the stop in motion That made the June incident feel less like a random scare and more like something that may have been done to him deliberately. Well, that suspicion was strengthened by what investigators later found Fone records were said to show intense contact between Julie Michael Monahghan Tony McNahon Around the black lion stop So with Jerry's movements apparently being passed along in real time As the guardi waited to intercept him from near the border states kept shifting with him Which car he was in, why he was delayed, when he was finally on the road, and when he was nearing Black lion In that light, the stop no longer looked like chance information from some unknown source It looks coordinated by people close to Jerry Oh yeah For sure There's definitely some sort of plan going on with the. Yep. there was somebody following him going Yep, he's here. he's blah blah. So it's like wh. What are their intentions on you know, informing each other where he is, what he's doing Yeah. Well, as investigators dug even further, other details added to the picture Witnesses said Julie and Monahhan were speaking as though Police would get nothing from the vans becausecause Jerry had been in and out of them anyways Police also found a forged currency English and Irish driving licenses bearing Julie McGinley's photograph But the name Anne Marie Martin and a letter inquiring about emigrating to Australia. Aout about to do the Os ski, as you say Yes. Wow. So as all of that was been uncovered, The search for Jerry crossed the border. RUC and the Gardi shared information followed reported sightings and checked the places connected to his worker movements but none of it to him Days turned into weeks and weeks into months For Jerry's parents, the uncertainty became unbearable By then, they were trying any avenue that they could for answers But in the end, they even consulted a clairvoyant I mean, I've seen cases, you know, be so in America a lot of people do it in America be fair Y, you know, for missing people or What happ? Yeah you get so desperate Yeah you're like, I'll do anything. Give this a go. you know, it's worth a try. so ye Meanwhile Julian Monahan had already begun trying to move on with their life after Jerry's disappearance They were already starting to build that life together in County Donenegal taking business premises. there and later moving into a rented house with Julie's children and Patrick McPatden Later reports placeac them first and Dagal and then back in Eescillon at Julie's father's home But it didn't last by late May, two thousand one. Julie McGinley Michael Monahghan and Matt Patrick McPatden been charged with Jerry's murder. Then on the third of june of two thousand one, the case changed completely. Human remains were found in woodland in the Ognailin area of Belina Moore in County Layrim Nilin. Yes, you close enough. That good. That's a tough one. That was a crazy looking word. Yeah. You think that the whales ones are bad. way there's more in the Irish. They're coming for us. Well, there was few rem remains found and Amanda O'Connell and her sister had come upon them in a remote spot behind an uprooted tree and partially covered with black sheet in The remains were badly decomposed and had been there for around ten months. You know, as many times like we're on episode forty now. as many times as we've seen, a passerby found human remains. I'm like I don't want to go for a walk. Yeah. Yeah. Don't go walking in woodlands, you know? I mean, these are the places that people tend to hide Oh d seeight And especially like out there, you've got animals as well. So ye they might be buried for a little bit, but animals can come and dig them up and you know find scatter them about everywhere. So Yeah. Well, the area was sealed off, while the guardee and the RUC tried to establish who had been found Back in Manor Hamilton, Jerry's parents Betty and Gerald Sr. were left waiting for news, hoping however awful the truth might be they could finally lay their son to rest That answer did not come immediately. Dental records were needed and DNA testing were also used before the remains were confirmed. as Jerry's Once Jerry was identified, investigators now had a body dumps site clelear a line back to the house where he had been last seen alive By then, the stripped bedroom, the fires outside, the belongings left behind, and the calls between Julie and Monahghan. Painted, a damning picture. Yep, it's all coming together Yep When they get to the postmortem, it made it clear just how violent the attack had been The worst of the damage was to the right side of Jerry's face and head with fractures spreading across the skull Pathologists said that the pattern of injury suggested he had stayed in the same position throughout the attack laying on his back The weapon was never found, but the injuries were consistent with a heavy rounded blunt instrument likeike a baseball bat guessing? Yeah, couldin, yeah. ye. The investigation had done where it could The next stage was c prosecution would have to turn all of those fragments, the affair, the house The lies. Budody in Balinaore into a case the jury would accept. When the case came to Leagansside Crown Court in Belfast on the sixteenth of seeptember of two thousand two crown was clear from the outset that this was a circumstantial case. There was no confession No eyewitness to the killing. and no peace one piece of evidence that could carry the prosecution on its own The jury was asked to stand back and look at the whole pattern. Yeah The prosecution's case was that Julie and Monahhan wanted to carry on their relationship as if Jerry McGinley had never existed. and that the affair sat at the heart of the motive This was not a case built around one dramatic reveal built around accumulation The relationship, the clean up inside the house, The body in Belina Mre and the effort as the crown saw it to make Jerry disappear A major part of that argument was the state of the room where Jerry had been killed The jury heard that Jurry was said to have left wearing the same clothes he had bought the previous day and worn to the Fort Lodge And the police later bought matching items and said debris from the fire matched them Dr. Eileen Murphy's evidence also supported the prosecution's case, the attack would have caused blood spatter from the weapon and that the room would have been stripped and removed to be, you know, so they can get rid of all that contamination Contamination. ye. yep, yeep. because you can you know You' in blood spat you know, someone's sort of been hit blood will fly up, but it doesn't just come up from actually impacts bat It's going to come up when the person if they're using, say a baseball bat, for instance, is going to be a strike in the a cast off So Hey we've all seen Dexter. Yeah Eactly. so You know, Let's a good show that Well, there was also witness evidence that gave the case a darker edge Josephine McGilroy said that Monahan had spoken about Jerry in violent terms before the murder calling him a psychopath and a schchizzo and saying that McNirn was going to get him sorted also said that he later complained that a man had got five hundred pounds and not done the job right and that someone else would have to do it That's not suspicious. No. I paid this guy five hundred pounds. He didn't get the job. No attempt, you know Yeah This is where you go. Yum Ciminals were dumb And you're just so glad that they were dumb. Sometimes I don't get out. I don't can't just get my head around how dumb criminals are. Oh yeah. And like how just they they think that they're not going to be caught at all and they're just. I mean, why do you think there was a series it was called worldorld's Dumbest Criminals Like They're just dumb Yeah Patrick Owens gave similar evidence. He said Bonahghan has suggested he had used McNirn to threaten Jerry and had remarked that Jerry would be found quote, pushing up the heather. in a lrum mountain. which is the same expression as he's going be pushing up daisies. Yes. ye Y a buried. Yeah The trial also brought in forensic evidence linking Monahghan directly to Julie through a semen stain found on the mattress of the marital bed That did not prove murder on its own But it badly damaged any suggestion that the affair had only begun after Jerry had disappeared. Yes, so they can't say, o no, we didn't have an affair or any type of relationship intimately Frier. Yeahah, okay. Well Wh your semen? Yeah Wh why was your stains on there then? Exactly. Would you go in there creeping there and masturbate yourself, your widow Anywways Well, you know, there are people I just read an article today that somebody here in England gone broke into this lady's house and She was obviously asleep And he's broken into her house and he's sucking her toes She's woke up to him sucking her time. What Yeah I mean there's some fucking weird ass people out there Stay out at of people's houses if you ain't being invited. That's what my advice. Don't suck toes that's is consered. Jesus Christ. I mean, what a crime, you know Anyway On this case, the defense went after the case where any circumstantial prosecution is most exposed. suspicion argued was not the same as proof The evidence still did not show who had actually delivered the fatal blows Jerry had other enemies, they suggested, and his death could not simply be laid at the feet of the two people in the dock Julie did not give evidence and Munahhan denied involvement So in the end, the jury's task was to decide whether the crown's case taken as a whole. Gone far enough On the third of December of two thousand two It had The jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts against Julie and Monahan for the murder of Jerry McGinley Hey, you know what that is Juries are people that you me everyday people Clearly with fucking common sense. Yeah That's how you reach a verdict. Firstly, you need common sense. Yes And then, you know Jesus, look at what circumstances were there, you know behaviours after the After the fact. After yeah What's prison like That still gets me. Madness. Members of Jerry's family wept in court and two jurors, including the foreman, were also said to be in tears Monahan slumped with his head in his hands as the verdict was read Julie showed no emotion as she was led from the dock At sentencing, Mr. Justice Kerr The exact circumstances of killing were not and might never be fully known Notless one of them m ps their mouth But he also made clear that the jury had been satisfied that both defendants had either taken part in the killing or procured others to do it He described Jerry as having been in a vulnerable and defenseless position when the first blow was struck He also called the murder callous and chilling and stressed the added horror of it being carried out while two very young girls slept inside the house. Yeah, that mean poor guy being murdered in the bedroom near his children. Yeah. Both defendants received the mandatory life sentence. What remained was tariff Mr. Justice Kerr said the murder had clearly involved planning concealment, arming in advance and the destruction of evidence In the absence of clearer evidence, he treated it as an opportunistic killing but not one that had come out of nowhere in his view been in the defendants minds for at least some time beforehand He considered mitigation in both cases, but found no proper reason to treat one differently from the other So the tariff was set at fifteen years each Not not enough in my opinion. N take this is the thing with me, you know, I I like that America, you know, most parts of America do still have death penalty because If someone takes somebody's life, they're gone for life.. you know, and being in jail You're still living, you're still enjoying some things, you know, obviously foods you like or whatever. U watching TV These people that you've murdered. are not They're not and the effects on their families is horrendous So I do believe that there, you know, there should always be some sort of life for life situation. Well, fifteen years is not No, it's not quite enough. That's not life. now. See, that's another thing with our justice system over here In the UK, you know, they say, oh, yeah, a life sentence. No it's not because you're only giving him fifteen years. So really the way we look at it. Like whenever you think fifteen years is not life. Well you gott to think like America, they go twenty five to life. you know, that's like a lot of Warest stars is like twenty five. Yeah And before you can even be considered for P The end of the trial did not bring quick closure for Jerry's family Although his remains had been found in June of two thousand one It was only after sentencing in March of two thousand three that the funeral arrangements could finally go ahead. More than two and a half years had passed since his death. Jerry was buried at Staint Claair's Church in Manor Hamilton and hundreds attended Pur Yeah, popular person and Very sad for I mean, yeah, he did some shady shad. Yeah was cool. He was still a businessman, you know, it would have been known well in the community. I shouldn't have been killed for it. Definitely not Well, after all the headlines in courtroom details, the funeral itself seemed to be marked less by spectacle than by exhaustion Grief and endurance more than anything tone came from Jerry's parents At the service, the priest praised their dignity their lack of bitterness and their determination to see that the truth came out and justice was done. Well, that stood in sharp contrast to the way that the case was often framed in public where the affair, the black maail allegations and the quote black widow label intended to dominate Jimmry's family spoke in much quieter register than that. Outside court, his father said, and I quote, I get no pleasure from this We're not looking for vengeance also spoke about the two children still very young at the time. and the fact that they would now have to grow up without Eitha parent available to them in any ordinary way That stayed with the case because it cut against the kind of triumph people sometimes expect after a conviction Yeah, they expect everybody to get up and cheer that Yeah. it you look at the impact and, you know, how it's going to impact, especially the two children. Yeah, you know, to lose both parents U different ways, obviously, but They've then got a grow up I mean I remember I didn't grow over my dad until I was like fifteen. And I remember being in school and you know, used talking about the Both their parents have taken them out and doing this or whatever, my dad does this for work or You know, I couldn't say that. So it was it was always a weird They're like, well, where's your mom? Yeah exactly. She's in jail. Well where' your dad? Yeah, She killed him. It's like, do you tell them, you know, your friends the truth? Do or people that you knew, you know making new friends be really tough. Yeah, It' be a really hard life for the children. but Sounds like they've got a great family, the rest of the family, and the grandparents and that the step up and raise them right. so Yeah Well, legally, though, the case did not end with the verdict Julie and Monahghan both challenged their convictions, but in two thousand six, the Court of Aeal dismissed those efforts later that same year They were both refused leave to take the case to the House of Lords They said, Gifuck You're staying in jail The court found no point of law of general public importance that justified any further appeals But the argument over Julie McGinley's role did not end there B two thousand seven campaign had emerged to have her conviction ree examamined. with support from the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, Prison Chaplains and the Belfast Ray Crisis Center. The case being advanced then was that Julie had been treated too simply in the original proceedings. nor is a woman shaped by fear, coercion and manipulation. but as a straightforward architect of murder The aim was to have the conviction reconsidered by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. so what her supporters were really trying to reopen was not just the verdict itself But the story that had formed it around it That campaign put forward a very different version of events In that telling, Julie was not the driving force behind the killing But a woman who later said she had been living in a coercive and abusive marriage Her supporters argued that she had been manipulated, frightened, and pressured into sexual situations for years. Julia and Monahan both maintained that the killing had not been planned and that she had not been in the bedroom when the fatal blow was struck Julie did, however, admit to helping cover up what happened afterwards It was a serious attempt to recast her role in the case But wherever it changed in public discussion, it did not change the conviction continued to grow was Julie's public image She became one of the most recognizable female offenders in Northern Ireland Not because the case was the largest in scale, but because it contained the kind of details that tend to stay in the public mind the quote and quote Qidow label they attetached to her long after the trial By twenty fifteen, those later developments had become controversial in their own right After serving the tariff on her life sentence, Julie McKinley entered phaseed release from Hydbank prrison. Reports described her spending increasing amounts of time outside prison and also beginning a relationship with a former BBC producer I am Hm Well al right. Well she was said to be banned from Eescillion. barred from contacting Jerry's relives and prohibited from drinking alcohol or entering licensed premises J Geez. So she's obviously got conditions. U I don't know whether so Obviously she was not allowed to contact Jerry's parents. so I don't know about whether the if anything later they're going to goren they would probably go through reports to say if she would be able to have contact with kids or anything like that. Well, even with those conditions, many people were angered by the sight of her appearing to build some kind of normal life again That anger deepened when newspapers began publishing photographs of her in exactly those ordinary settings being traveling from prison, spending time in her new partner's home in Belfast The images were ordinary And that was exactly what made them so hard for some people to accept By twenty twenty one, reports placed her in East Belfast liivving quietly and running a dog minding business Customers were said not to know who she was and neighbours who described as unaware of her past Perhaps in where the case left one of its deepest discomforts, Jerry remained permanently tied to the violence of his death Wh Julie, however, controversially We're still able to move on from it. Yeah She can go on with her life. Yep Yeah. So That is where the case still lingers. notot simply in the murder itself or even the convictions that followed But in everything wrapped around it The affair, the blackmail allegations, the secrecy, the lies, and the sense that some parts of what happened in and around that house were never fully brought into the light night because well They're the only ones that know exactly what happened. of them are actually coming out and saying exactly what happened. then there's never going to be a clear picture. I try to find whether Monahan has he's probably gotten out by now as well I mean, I mean, I don't wish one fifteen. Well and don't wish them great rest of their lives to be fair. You know, but they have done their time and You know, and how little it was. Yeah compred to what they fucking did. I just hope that Jerry's family and friends and his children are having a good life and despite the tragic circumstances around Joey's death That was the story of a body in the woods and the murder of Jerry Gerald McKinley Yep, awful, awful happened J leave This is where I go. Just leave If you in M, if you want to just be like, fuck off. That was the passport in a different name, you know? I mean, she it seems like she setting herself up to go off to Australia. Well, why didn't just do that? Why do you But you know, why do people feel The only way to leave a marriage or a relationship is to Not everybody, obviously, but You know, some people out there think that that's the only way to leave a relationship is It was probably because of the kids, you'd have to fight in court over the kids So be it, you know, at the end of the day, they're his children as well. So of course that's just you know, part of the situation that you're gonna to have to deal with It's a way that you look at things, isn't it you know, perspective on things. perserspective is is a major part in this, I think You know? They probably wanted to go off to Australia and they're like, M, we can't do that until we get rid of him, so we we can't take the kids. Yeah ye ye more likely be awful Its still disgusting that people think, you know, results of murder. It's It's not the answer Well, thank you very much for listening to this episode guys. If you value the work that we do here in the archive Please follow the show and leave us a five star rating. It really does help theseese stories reach further and keep the archive growing. Yeah You can also support us on Patreon. 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