The family of Jill Meagher, including the parents of her husband Thomas, have met with the mayor of the district in Australia where she lived and where she was murdered by convicted rapist Adrian Bayley last year.
Mayor Oscar Yildiz has paid for his visit himself and the meeting with the family and the mayor of Drogheda this morning was informal.
He assured her family, including her aunts Catherine and Helen and her uncle Michael, that “she hasn’t died in vain” and he said the Australian parole board, “had failed”.
“We let someone on the loose who in fact four times did not report to his parole officer so when you think about the circumstances in which Adrian Bayley was let out on the streets and we ignored him,” he said.
He acknowledged Ms Meagher’s husband Thomas in his efforts to highlight what happened with the parole system and said: “We are now hopefully moving in the right direction to address the issue.”
Mr Yildiz added: "Something very good out of something very tragic can possibly happen but we won't be doing any of that without the wishes of the family.
“ The legacy of Jill will stay on for a very long time. It has brought a lot of key organisations together.”
He told her family: “We are thinking of you and of the residents here and I want to express our grief and on behalf of my council back home I want to share that grief and let you know she hasn’t died in vain.”
Ms Meagher’s uncle Michael McKeon said: “We are grateful that he came all this way to give his condolences and the fact that he can look to put in place some legislative changes in Australia in relation to parole in relation to the safety of women, (so) something positive will come out of it, we are very grateful to him.”
Joan Meagher, the m urdered woman’s mother-in-law, said the family had been overwhelmed by the support they have received and that “Jill has obviously not been forgotten and good things have happened since she was murdered with regard to the parole board and that in Australia and at least she hasn’t died in vain”.
“We still miss her and think about her every single day and I don’t k now how long that will go on,” she added.
Mayor of Drogheda Richic Culhane thanked Mr Yildiz for “showing solidarity not just with the Meagher and McKeon family but with the people of Drogheda”.
Bayley was sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 35 years last month after pleading guilty to the rape and murder of the Co Louth woman in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick on September 22nd last year.
Bayley has launched an appeal against the length of his sentence.