THE father of murdered Ballinascarthy student Cameron Blair has spoken of his family’s disappointment that a court ruling means that their son’s killer’s name will never be made public because he was underage at the time of the murder.
Cameron, who was a chemical engineering student at CIT (now MTU) was stabbed to death at a house on Bandon Road in Cork city on January 16th 2020.
The youth, who is now serving a life sentence for his murder, was aged 17 at the time, but a recent Supreme Court ruling means his identity will be protected.
The judgement overruled a Court of Appeal decision allowing the naming of Cameron’s killer.
Speaking publicly for the first time, Noel Blair told RTÉ’s Oliver Callan Show last week that Cameron was a ‘compassionate fella’ who was starting to move forward with both college and life when he was brutally murdered.
‘He was a nice lad, enjoyed the bit of craic, enjoyed the fun but could also be very serious but also looked out for people, which came to light after he died. He was a fella who would have went far, ‘said Noel. He said the family are utterly disappointed by the recent Supreme Court ruling.
‘The criminals run the roost; the system works in favour of them. This individual can’t be named but every member of our family from the youngest child to the great-grandmother can be. There’s no anonymity there,’ said Noel.
He also spoke about parental responsibility and how they should be responsible for their child’s action. He maintained that there should be one-year mandatory prison sentence for a first offence of the possession of a knife or a harmful weapon, with no mitigating circumstances.
‘They play the system for months and possibly years before they go to court. They plead innocent up to the day they go to court. Then on the day they plead guilty, then the judge gives them a big reduction just because they pleaded guilty, even though it may be 12 months, 18 months later,’ he added.
Noel said the whole things is ‘watered down’ and that there is no deterrent for offenders not to re-offend.
‘They know the system. They go up in front of court, they cry that they’re fond of drink or drugs, that they have a bad family home and all this nonsense. So many people had hard times when they were young growing up but they don’t go out and murder people.’
He added that the support the family received from Cameron’s friends and the general community over the past five years has been very special.
‘Still to this day Cameron’s friends turn up at the house to visit us, which for young lads at that age I think it is very nice for us.’
