Parents of battered young musician beaten to death say their lives have ‘changed forever’

The parents of a young musician who was beaten to death tell how their life has changed forever due to violent crime.

Gavin O’Connor, 22, died after his head was smashed before his car hit him nine years ago.

The young man was a guitarist with a local classic rock group.

His evil killer Conor McClelland, who was 19 at the time of the murder and did not know Gavin, was sentenced to life in prison for the unprovoked attack.

The monster, from Monaghan, Ireland, crossed paths with Gavin asleep in his car in the early hours of June 4, 2011, in Caricmacros, a county town. The two men were attending a music festival in the city that night.

He claims he stole the car while Gavin didn’t realize he was sleeping in the back seat.

McClelland told police that after Gavin woke up he repeatedly hit him with stones on the head and when his victim got off the road, he drove the car towards him.

Incredibly, he admitted that he did it to make his injuries look like they were caused by an accident.

McClelland pleaded not guilty at trial but was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

He has already had neutral visits to the venue and will be eligible for his second probation hearing next spring.

Gavin’s grieving parents are calling for implementation of the 2019 parole law to stop him.

Mother Helena told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “We feel we are sentenced to life in prison and we fear the day Conor McClelland is released.”

“Our life changed forever when Gavin was killed and the brutality of it will go to the grave with us.”

My father, Jerry, added: “What happened to Gavin is unbearable. It was made by a person with no regard for human life.

“Now he can stay in prison, eat good food and leave in no time, it’s just a mistake. There are evil people in the world, this slave is pure evil. “

Helena insisted that McClelland should never have been left out for what he had done.

“He didn’t even know Gavin. After nine years, we still don’t know what happened to him, “he added.

“Gavin got out of here on Friday night – at first he said he wasn’t going.

“When he came out, I had a terrible feeling that he wasn’t back. I called him and said, “A lion did me a favor and take care of you,” and he said: Bored.

“It lasted until the next morning when his girlfriend called me.

“The doctor said a dry brain should have three or four different chambers, but all he could see was mush.

He said the only reason his heart was still beating was because he was so small.

“After Gavin died, I remember thinking, ‘When was the last time I told him I loved him? “

Tragically, the couple lost their second child, Patrick, in a car accident just two years later.

However, Gavin’s music is still alive thanks to his father Jerry who gave his gear a new lease on life with a band created in his memory called The Reel Beats.