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The devastated family of missing Jo Jo Dullard claim her killer has been protected for more than two decades because of his strong political connections.

The 21-year-old Kilkenny woman disappeared without a trace in 1995 but now her sister Mary Phelan has told for the first time how she believes gardai and prominent politicians at the time conspired to ensure her murderer never faced justice.

As a State probe into a smear campaign against Garda whistleblowers begins, she claims some officers waged a similar blackening of Jo Jo’s name to lessen public sympathy with her case.

A senior Garda told Mary and her husband Martin at a meeting in 1996 officers knew the identity of the man who abducted, raped and killed Jo Jo.

He was able to give disturbing details of how the psycho disposed of her body, saying she was “wrapped in plastic and buried 10ft underground” using a digger.

But he also told them the investigation “won’t go anywhere”.

Jo Jo’s family believes he was telling the truth but was later warned to toe the official line that the case was being fully investigated.

They also allege gardai engaged in a “smear campaign just like they did to Maurice McCabe” to quieten public interest in the case.

Described by her family as a “quiet girl” who held down several part-time jobs and had been studying beauty therapy, Mary insists officers painted her in a bad light – even leaking details of an abortion.

She said: “They said all kinds of horrible things about Jo. They said she was drinking, taking drugs. They drove her down to dirt. I’ll never get over the smear campaign.

“Jo was a lovely girl, a quiet girl she didn’t deserve that. It (the abortion) was her own personal thing.

“Destroying her reputation was what they did to make people stop looking for her, to stop asking questions, to make it go away.”

Mary “thought long and hard” before bringing medical notes on the procedure to gardai but was desperate to do everything to help find her.

She added: “They swore on the bible it would be kept confidential, but then they went and told a newspaper.

“That was nothing to do with her death. It was a conscious attempt to stop me pushing Jo Jo’s case. Smearing her was to stop me speaking out.”

On the night she disappeared Jo Jo missed the last bus home from Dublin to Kilkenny.

She took one as far as Naas and from there planned to hitchhike .

A man who came forward to gardai and was never considered a suspect gave her a lift to Kilcullen.

Another driver then dropped her off at a phone box in Moone, Co Kildare.

At this point she called her friend and flatmate in Callan, Co Kilkenny, Mary Cullinane, and told her she would call her from the next stop before telling her a car had pulled up.

It was the last anyone heard from her.

Later gardai claimed a witness dubbed the “999 girl” came forward and said she travelled in car with Jo Jo as far as Carlow town before she got out at a set of traffic lights, with Jo Jo continuing her journey with two men.

Two years later that woman came to Mary saying she was the “999 girl”.

She apologised for lying, insisting she never saw Jo Jo and gardai had told her to make the false claim. Mary said: “I just told her it was OK. What else was I going to say? She told me she wasn’t well at the time and was frequently in the Garda station, so they knew her.”

She claims officers made this “vulnerable woman” pretend she was with Jo Jo who was still alive when they travelled as far as Carlow to take the focus of the investigation out of the area where her body is buried.

The “999 girl” approached Mary at the unveiling of a monument in Jo Jo’s memory at the site where the phone box in Moone stood. A short time after her disappearance it was decided to remove the phone box.

Mary’s husband Martin said: “It’s the last place we know Jo Jo was and they tore it down. You usually leave flowers at the side of the road when a person is killed in a crash. They couldn’t even let us have that.”

A women’s group in Kerry donated a monument in her memory.

Martin added: “We had to fight hard just to be allowed to put that up.”

He explained that when they arrived to dig the foundation to insert the small stone memorial two council workers were there to stop it. But they eventually got their way and the memorial was erected in 1998.

Jo Jo’s family insist gardai were desperate to take the focus off the south Kildare/Wicklow area.

Martin said: “They were trying to push us down into Carlow where they knew we wouldn’t find anything.”

Mary later met a Government minister to push for more to be done to help find Jo Jo’s remains.

That minister told the family they had a report from gardai which stated everything possible was being done.

Martin added: “We then asked if the army could be brought in too and the minister replied in a sarcastic manner, ‘Where shall I send them to, Cork? We have to have a specific area’.

“We mentioned searching the Wicklow Mountains, but the minister said ‘army men could be lost as it is boggy’. I felt at the time, ‘what have we an army for?”

Eventually a search was sanctioned but the family say they were not told about it beforehand because they would have objected that the focus was on the wrong area.

They insist the farmland in Wicklow where they believe her body remains was given “just a

cursory glance”.

The couple, who are now retired from farming, say they will spend “every day until the end

fighting to get justice for Jo”.

They have led a long campaign for the setting up of a dedicated Missing Persons’ Unit.

Last month they retained Belfast human rights experts KRW Law to represent them in a legal challenge for a fresh probe into Jo Jo’s disappearance and the handling of the criminal investigation at the time.

With the launch of the Charleton Inquiry, the family believes people are beginning to take claims of corruption seriously.

They are now appealing to retired gardai who may have information about an effort to cover up her death to blow the whistle. Last week they also met Sinn Fein MEP Lynn Boylan, who has vowed to support their campaign.

In a statement responding to claims of Garda malpractice surrounding the case, the force’s press office said: “This is an active investigation and as such we will not be commenting.

“We are still appealing for anyone with information to come forward and contact gardai.

“If anyone has a complaint regarding the investigation they should contact the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission.”