'My sister is not just another statistic' - Jennie's Law is signed

Jennifer Poole, a woman murdered by her former partner, will not be "another statistic" her brother has said after a new law in her name was signed off in the Republic of Ireland.

Jason Poole's sister was unaware her partner Gavin Murphy had a history of domestic violence when he murdered her in her Dublin home in 2021.

The Domestic Violence (Judgements) Register Bill 2026, known as Jennie's Law, was approved by the Dáil (Irish parliament) and has now been signed off by Irish President Catherine Connolly.

It will result in those convicted of domestic violence against a partner being included on a public register.

Jennifer, a 24-year-old mother of two young children, was stabbed seven times and was pronounced dead later in hospital.

Her former partner pleaded guilty to her murder and was sentenced to life in prison in April 2022.

Murphy had a history of violence against women and was previously jailed for two years for attacking a former partner and her mother with a knife in 2015.

They met in 2020 and Jennifer's brother Jason said that due to Covid-19 restrictions they didn't have much interactions with him, but not long into their relationship Jennifer started to become isolated from her friends and family.

He said she also presented with bruises but she always had an excuse for them.

Jennifer had broken off the relationship a week before her murder.

Jason said if his sister knew of Murphy's past she "absolutely" would not have entered into a relationship with him.

"If Jennifer had of known what she was going to put herself or her children through, knowing his past, I can 100% say she wouldn't have been in a relationship with him," Jason told BBC News NI.

After Murphy's guilty plea, Jason began to meet politicians to "lay down the proposals of what could be done to make these things better in the future".

"It was important to us, I suppose, because we wanted to make sure that Jennifer wasn't just another statistic, she's a 24-year-old mother of two who was loved and cherished by her whole family," he said.

"Now we have a legacy that her children will know that their mummy didn't die in vain.

"It's to support victims, it's to support families that are not going to have to suffer like we have had to suffer and continue to suffer, because we didn't know how we could help Jennifer, because we didn't know his past."

Jennie's Law has been compared to Clare's Law in the UK where people concerned that their partner or ex-partner may have a history of being abusive can ask police to disclose incidents on their record in a "right to ask" application.

However, it has drawn criticism because police have not disclosed the information.

Jennie's Law on the other hand is a publicly-available register where those convicted of domestic violence against a partner or former partner will be included.

The public register will be hosted on the website of the Courts Service, and victims and survivors will be required to provide consent before the convicted person can be named on the register.

Jason said if Jennie's Law was available at the time then his sister would still be alive today.

"If we had of had a domestic violence register available to us as a family, or her, she wouldn't have been in that relationship, and she wouldn't be in Glasnevin Cemetery today because she would have known he had a previous conviction for domestic violence.

"We would have not allowed her or her children to be in a relationship with somebody who had a history of that."

Jason said it "hasn't been an easy road to get to this point" and he has yet to fully process his sister's death.

"I am literally a brother who had no choice but to go and see their sister being laid in to a ground because of failures in a system that wasn't there to protect her.

"And now that those systems are there, hopefully the less work I'll have to do and I can get on and actually start my grief."

Nuala Lappin, a former domestic violence officer with the Police Service of Northern (PSNI), said Northern Ireland should "go a bit further with a public register" such as Jennie's Law.

"It empowers victims and potential victims to find out for themselves and make those decisions early on; Clare's Law in my view is more reactive than preventative," Lappin told The Nolan show.

The Justice Minister, Naomi Long, told the programme they are "closely" watching "what happens in the south" and are "keeping an open mind".

"For us to introduce comparable legislation here, we would have to go through our own process because it does mean disclosing people's details online and we would have to look at, for example, whether that is considered to be proportionate," Long said.