Mother of murdered boxer Kevin Sheehy welcomes 22-year sentence for Coventry killer Logan Jackson

Tracey Tully, the mother of the late boxing champion, said she will not rest in peace until all those involved in her son’s murder are sent to prison.

Ms Tully’s call came after her son’s killer, Logan Jackson, was sentenced to 22 years in prison in his native England for the murder of her son this week.

The final verdict came five years after Sheehy’s murder, on July 1, 2019.

Jackson, originally sentenced to life in Ireland in December 2021, was eventually transferred from Limerick Prison to his native UK despite Ms Tully launching legal proceedings against the Minister for Justice in an attempt to keep Jackson imprisoned in Ireland.

The grieving mother was convinced that her son’s killer should serve his sentence in the country where he took her son’s life.

However, speaking today, Wednesday, Ms Tully said she was “delighted” that Jackson must now, under an order by the Sheriff Court in his home city of Coventry, spend at least 19 years and 192 days in prison before he is eligible for parole.

“He would have been about 17 here in Ireland. Even if it never brings my son back, I’m happy to know I won’t have to hear from him for a long time,” Ms Tully said.

“I lived in constant fear of getting a phone call saying he (Jackson) had been given a lesser sentence (in Britain). It would have killed me.”

Jackson ran over Kevin Sheehy multiple times in a brutal and unprovoked attack as the five-time national boxing champion and Olympic hopeful was driving home from celebrating Limerick’s 2019 Munster Hurling Final victory over Tipperary.

Jackson, 34, of Longford Road, Coventry, was found guilty by a unanimous jury at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin in 2021 of murdering Mr Sheehy (20) in the early hours of July 1, 2019, in Hyde Road, Limerick.

The court heard evidence from Mr Sheehy, who had no links with crime and was a sporting hero in his community, who struggled to get up after being hit by a British-registered Mitsubishi Shogun jeep driven by Jackson, who then ran over Mr Sheehy twice at high speed.

The court heard Jackson used the vehicle as a murder weapon in the killing of the five-time national boxing champion, from Ash Avenue, John Carew Park and Kennedy Park.

As prosecutor Dean Kelly told jurors, Jackson told “nothing but lies” about how he felt threatened at a house party earlier that evening.

Ms Tully said she and her family, including Kevin’s partner, who was pregnant with their first daughter at the time of his death, had not had the opportunity to grieve properly due to his sudden and shocking death and the protracted legal battle for justice they were still fighting.

Sharing a photo of her beloved son taken just hours before he was murdered, Mrs Tully, who was delighted by Limerick’s success in the Munster Hurling Championship, said: “He was so happy that day, he met so many people when Limerick won the Munster Hurling Final and he hugged them all.”

Ms Tully said she was unhappy with the pace of the investigation by gardaí into allegations that other people helped Jackson.

She called on Gardai to resume efforts to arrest two people suspected of helping Jackson.

“I am at my absolute lowest point, trying to heal myself, but you can’t heal from something you don’t understand,” Ms Tully said.

She said Jackson’s sentencing in the UK this week, on the fifth anniversary of Kevin Sheehy’s murder, was “a pleasing outcome for us, albeit bittersweet”.

“We never had time to mourn Kevin or celebrate his wonderful life. A friend of his recently sent me a photo of them all driving home from the Munster final, laughing and being happy.

“I couldn’t stop crying when I saw that picture. It’s a bittersweet picture of your child five years later that you’ve never seen before.”

Kevin Sheehy has been selected to represent Ireland at the 2024 Olympic Games, which begin in France later this month.

Gardaí have been contacted for comment.