THE FATHER OF Nicola Furlong, the Irish student killed by an American in Japan nearly two years ago, says that his daughter’s killer told him she did not suffer.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Liveline with Joe Duffy this afternoon, Andrew Furlong said that his heart goes out to the family of Karen Buckley.
He said that any parent with a child abroad worries, but that they try to put those fears aside.
However, he has found that that isn’t always possible.
“You might think think of it, that they’d come back in a coffin, but you push it to the back of your mind and think that the world is great, but the world is not great.
There are evil people out there, no matter where you turn.
He added that losing a child was hard no matter the circumstances.
It’s the same for every family, it’s no harder on me than anyone who loses a loved one.
Nicola, a third year international business student from Curracloe in Wexford had travelled to Japan in October as part 2011 of an exchange programme.
She had attended a Nicki Minaj concert in Tokyo in May 2012 night and was found dead in a hotel room the morning after.
Andrew said that his family were not aware if Richard Hinds, a 21-year-old musician from Memphis in the US found guilty of the murder, would be released when his minimum five year jail term is served, or if he will serve the full 10 years.
“As far as we understand, whoever runs the jail will decide. I try not to think about it.”
Asked by Duffy if Hinds had ever expressed remorse or sorrow, he said that the murdered had addressed him only once, as he was being taken to prison.
We never went looking for him. He looked into my eyes in the court and said “look into my eyes Mr Furlong, your daughter didn’t suffer”. There’s remorse for you.
“I could have done jail if I had have got near him myself.”
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