A NEW LAW, ‘Jennie’s Law’, is being brought forward for approval to Cabinet tomorrow.

The law is named in honour of Jennifer Poole. Jennifer was 24 when she was murdered by her ex-partner, 30-year-old Gavin Murphy, in 2021.

Murphy had a previous conviction for assaulting a former partner and had a history of abusive behaviour. Jennifer was not aware of this. 

The new law will allow those convicted of domestic violence against a current or former partner to be publicly named on a Register of Judgements.

The Domestic Violence Register be will managed by the Courts Service and victims will be required to provide consent before the convicted abused can be named on the public register.

Jennifer’s brother Jason has been an advocate for the introduction of such a register, with then-backbench TD Jim O’Callaghan supporting the initial campaign. The Minister for Justice will be bringing the law forward tomorrow.

Under O’Callaghan’s legislation, convictions will be published online by the Courts Service, under a specific heading of “Domestic Violence Register Judgments”.

“This will help people who are in a relationship or considering a relationship with a person to discover whether they have a history of serious domestic violence convictions,” the department said.

The information will be presented in a way that is linked to domestic violence services. 

Under the legislation, the trial judge will have discretion to issue a judgment in an appropriate case, which will contain details of conviction and sentence, as well as any other information relevant to the offence that the judge deems appropriate.

O’Callaghan said: “If a person is convicted of a serious criminal offence before the courts, that is a public conviction and the public are entitled to know about that conviction. In Ireland justice is required to be administered in public.”

O’Callaghan commended Jason Poole and his family for his advocacy and said he was proud to introduce such legislation.