Woman whose sister was killed by freed murderer calls for tougher sentences
04.03.2024 - 15:39
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
The devastated sister of a woman killed by a freed murderer has spoken of her 'shock' as they called for tougher sentences.
Cherylee Shennan was slain by her new boyfriend Paul O’Hara after he had been released following the murder of his ex Janine Waterworth in 1998.
O'Harra had stabbed 21-year-old Janine 12 times and served 14 years of his life sentence before being freed on licence in 2012, the Daily Mirror reports.
He would soon find Cherylee, a single mum-of-one, who he tried to strangle, repeatedly battered her with a hammer and then stabbed her to death in the street just two years later on March 17, 2014.
Younger sister Chiyvonne Shennan, 45, now backs the Mirror’s Justice For Our Daughters campaign, calling for tougher sentences for domestic killers of a guaranteed 25-year term.
Under current laws, a killer faces life, with a minimum of 25 years, if they take a weapon to the scene. The minimum drops to 15 years if the weapon is already there.
Speaking as the tenth anniversary of the killing approaches, Chiyvonne, from Rawtenstall, Lancashire, said: "If he had at least been locked up for 25 years the first time my sister would still be alive. He is a very dangerous individual.
"We need to make sure a life sentence is a life sentence. Because we, the victim’s family, are the ones living a life sentence.”
Cherylee would meet her future killer in April 2013 after he took a job in her furniture shop. They began dating and he soon became violent and only found out about his violent past later.
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Chiyvonne said: “She was told on the phone by a probation worker, while O’Hara was holding her at knifepoint.”
The sister