Kavanagh, who fatally cut five-year-old Ciaran Malone’s throat during a botched attempt to sexually assault the child’s mother in February 1995, was released from Shelton Abbey Open Prison on Monday.
The crime, for which Kavanagh spent more than three decades behind bars, is widely regarded as one of the most shocking to have ever occurred in this country.
Victim Ciaran Malone
The attack unfurled on Saturday, February 11, 1995 when Kavanagh, who had concealed his face behind a balaclava, forced his way into the home of his neighbour’s, the Malones, in Caragh, Co Kildare.
In a letter read out at his sentencing hearing in December 1995, Kavanagh confessed to having brutally murdered the innocent five-year-old and stabbed his aunt during a botched attempt to sexually assault Ciaran’s mother, Mary.
The reading of the letter at the sentencing was unprecedented at the time, given Kavanagh had pleaded guilty to the murder, but took place after Judge Paul Carney ruled: “It seems to me the people of Ireland are entitled to know Jerome Kavanagh’s explanation of why he took a life.”
In the statement Kavanagh, a single man who worked as an apprentice printer at the Leinster Leader, gave a detailed account of his motivation for carrying out the attack and also of the subsequent three days he spent in hiding while a manhunt was carried out.
“I reside next door to Mary and David Malone. They have three children, Ciaran, Gareth and baby David,” he wrote.
“About two or three weeks ago I went to Dublin. I called to Clerys and purchased two knives. I also bought plastic ties, black and white in colour.
“For the past three months I was sexually attracted to Mary Malone. I purchased the knives and ties for the purpose of breaking into her home and raping her.”
Jerome Kavanagh after he was sentenced for the horrific killing
He continued that when Mary Malone answered the door he put a knife he’d purchased in Cleary’s in Dublin three weeks earlier to her face.
Kavanagh then ordered children Ciaran and Gareth upstairs before forcing Mary Malone into her own bedroom.
He then entered the room where Patricia, Ciaran and Gareth were before stabbing Patricia and Ciaran with the knife.
In his letter he said: “I don’t know why I did it.”
Kavanagh’s horrific plot to rape Ciaran’s mother was interrupted when her husband David arrived home and a fight ensued.
Another man, Pat Dolly, then arrived at the scene leading to Kavanagh fleeing through a window.
Kavanagh spent the majority of his sentence incarcerated in the Midlands Prison but was moved to Shelton Abbey seven years ago.
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