A JURY has formally returned a verdict of death by murder in relation to a mother and her two daughters whose bodies were found after a fire at their home in Co Kilkenny at Christmas time.
Kilkenny Coroner’s Court heard yesterday that the bodies of Sharon Whelan (30) and her daughters Nadia (2) and Zara (7) were taken from a house fire at their home near Windgap, Co Kilkenny, on Christmas morning 2008.
The inquest heard Ms Whelan died from strangulation “before the fire started”, and that her two children had died of smoke inhalation. The inquest heard evidence that she may have been strangled during a forced sexual act.
Closing the inquest yesterday, Kilkenny county coroner Tim Kiely passed on his “personal condolences to Sharon’s family” and to neighbours who attended the scene of the fire at Roscon.
He said it was obviously a “shocking experience for anyone to be involved in”.
He said it “must be very difficult for witnesses”, and that it “will take a long time to recover” from such an experience.
Mr Kiely also expressed his “personal sympathies to Sharon’s extended family and to the wider community in Windgap”.
Postal worker Brian Hennessy (23) was sentenced to life in prison by the Central Criminal Court last November for the murders of Ms Whelan and her two daughters.
State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy told the inquest she carried out a postmortem on the body of Ms Whelan after “abnormalities were identified” during an earlier autopsy. Dr Cassidy said the “most significant finding” on Ms Whelan’s body were marks around her neck, and said the “neck had been compressed, consistent with manual strangulation”.
Dr Cassidy said there were also marks indicating a “forcible attempt” at both anal and vaginal penetration identifiable on Ms Whelan’s body.
She said she “may have been strangled during a sexual act” and that it “was possible” the neck of her night dress had been “pulled tight” on her neck.
Dr Cassidy also said it “could not be excluded that penetration had occurred after strangulation”.
She added that there was also a mark to the right cheek, possibly caused by a slap.
The court heard how Michael Landy, a neighbour of Ms Whelan, had climbed in a window of the house and had taken the three bodies from the house after a fire was noticed there on Christmas morning.
Mr Landy said he saw a child in a timber cot and another child on the ground and took them outside, and that he found Ms Whelan “face down on the ground” in the house.
Ambulance driver Tony Lawlor said he attended the scene at 9.31am. He saw that there were black stains to the nostrils of the two children, but that these marks were not present on the face of their mother.
Dr Cassidy told the inquest the two girls had died from inhalation of fire gas.
She said there was no evidence Ms Whelan had inhaled smoke or soot from the fire, confirming that she had “died before the fire started”.