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A devastated dad whose son was stabbed to death by a thug out on bail has claimed Ireland’s justice system is only “geared for criminals”.

Thomas O’Keeffe believes knife and gun crimes will increase if our release laws are not urgently changed.

The parent held his 20-year-old son Marc in his arms as the young carpenter died from a frenzied knife attack on May 30, 1997.

His killer Michael Doyle, from Tallaght in South Dublin, was out on bail after being charged with a serious assault on a taxi driver less than six months before the stabbing.

Mr O’Keeffe, 61, has been campaigning for more than a decade for all suspects of serious offences, such as assault, rape and manslaughter, to be denied bail.

He said: “Criminals have nothing to lose. Everything is geared for them, the whole system.

“My son was killed by a man who was out on bail. This man had tried to bite the skin off a taxi driver’s face.

“He only survived because two students walked by and helped him.

“That’s how vicious this man was, he was even known as ‘the Wolfman’.

“If the law had been different he would not have been out on bail and my son would be alive.

“But he was allowed out on bail and when he was charged with my son’s killing, he got four senior counsels. We got one.

“The court system was a total waste of time, I wasn’t even allowed to speak for my son. I was just ignored in the court. Now this man is out.

“He has a string of offences to his name. The likelihood is he will reoffend.Leopards don’t change their spots.”

Mr O'Keeffe spoke out as new figures revealed at least four people were killed by criminals released on bail in 2013.

And as many as 18 sex assaults cases, which occurred between January and September 2013, are believed to have been carried out by people who were granted bail.

The startling Central Statistic Office figures only cover up until September 2013 – and the full year’s grim findings will be laid bare tomorrow.

It revealed last week that criminals on bail were held responsible for close to 100 murders and 218 counts of rape in the last 10 years.

Mr O’Keeffe said: “I’ve been saying for the past 15 years that we need to look into this.

“Now the European and local elections are coming up, politicians are using the current crisis [in An Garda Siochana and the Department of Justice] as a step up. They tell us, ‘We’ll do this and change this’.

“Nothing will change, that’s the way it’s been for years. There was a problem with knife crime 15 years ago and it’s a lot worse now.

“I warned this would happen along with other families of victims but no one listened to us.”

When granting bail a judge must decide whether a suspect is deemed “safe in the community”.

And the heartbroken mum of a student killed by a criminal out on bail has blasted the system as “not fit for purpose”.

Lucia O’Farrell claimed the judiciary failed her family “by mopping up mistakes” instead of seeking the truth.

They have made 26 complaints to the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission over her son Shane’s death.

Ms O’Farrell insists failures by gardai led to the 23-year-old being killed in a hit-and-run incident and let driver Zigimantas Gridziuska get away without serving any time behind bars.

Ms O’Farrell said: “There has been no consequence, no deterrent for anyone.

“Nobody served five minutes for Shane’s killing. The system is utterly flawed.

"The State killed my son. The State allowed a man, who was a known heroin addict with convictions in Lithuania and in Ireland, to live freely for years and continue to drive until he killed.”

Shane was struck by a car as he was cycling just outside Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, on August 2, 2011.

The Trinity College student, who had just completed a Masters in law and was due to take part in a triathlon for charity, died instantly.

Gridziuska was stopped and searched by a drug squad detective an hour before the tragedy but was waved on.

It later emerged Gridziuska had falsified his car insurance documents and his vehicle was unroadworthy and had not been taxed. The 40-year-old also had 12 previous convictions in his home country and more than 40 in Ireland, including 26 for theft and nine under the Road Traffic Act.

In May 2011, three months before the hit-and-run incident, Gridziuska was handed a four-month suspended sentence at Ardee District Court, Co Louth, for theft.

And the criminal, who was known to Interpol, was also out on bail on four counts of theft and one of possession of stolen property.

Ms O’Farrell is furious Gridziuska was allowed to walk free – despite breaking the terms of his release and suspended sentences on several occasions in the months prior to her son’s death. The nurse said: “The justice system has failed Shane, our son, and failed our family.

“The yardstick they use to decide if someone is suitable for bail is that they are safe in the community.

“This man obviously wasn’t safe in the community.

“He was going in front of judges in Carrickmacross, in Monaghan town, Drogheda, Ardee, Dundalk and Cavan.

“Nobody was taking a look at him, nobody was joining the dots.

“This man was getting suspended sentences, sentences adjourned, the benefit of the Probation Act, community service, nobody was sending him to jail.”

Ms O’Farrell also wants to know why the Lithuanian national was not kept in custody while he awaited trial for Shane’s death.

She said: “When he killed our son, nobody asked for that suspended sentence to be activated and nobody asked for bail to be revoked.

“So he walked out of court on €500 bail and he was told to sign on at the Garda station three times a week.

“But nobody missed him when he failed to sign on at the Carrickmacross Garda station for two weeks. Now that is quite alarming.

“And then when this man is arrested once again for drug possession and theft, and he’s granted bail, we asked the DPP to appeal this bail in view that he is coming back to the same Garda station that failed to monitor him.

“But the DPP refused to appeal that decision, to bring to the judge’s attention that this man has left the jurisdiction before because, we think, that would have highlighted the fact that the gardai had failed.”

Gridziuska was acquitted of dangerous driving causing death in February 2013.

The judge presiding over the case directed a jury to find him not guilty, telling them there was no evidence to support the charge.

He gave Gridziuska an eight- month prison sentence – four months for leaving the scene and four months for failing to call the emergency services.

However, this term was suspended on the condition he left the country within three weeks.

Ms O’Farrell claims gardai and the DPP failed to tell the judge that Gridziuska was due to appear in court in March last year on charges of insurance fraud, which may have got him a stronger sentence.

She claimed: “The truth didn’t come out in court.

“Nobody informed the judge there was a file that was being prepared in the Garda station for years of insurance fraud. You would think this is relevant in the case of a hit-and-run.

“So this man was given the choice of an eight-month sentence or going home to Lithuania within three weeks.

“He chose going home to Lithuania but he didn’t go until June because, in the meantime, he was jailed for insurance fraud.

Ms O’Farrell added: “I will never get justice, not in this lifetime.

“My son studied the law, he believed in a just system.

“But the judicial system is a disgrace.”

AdVIC’s John O’Keeffe said the State is partly to blame for these grim findings.

He added: “There is no question the State has to accept responsibility for its appallingly relaxed attitude to the granting

of bail.

“Bail is now granted in the most extraordinary of circumstances and no matter what objections are put for foward by gardai, they often fall on deaf ears.

“In the State’s rush to join the stampede to ensure an accused rights are not trampled on, they then instead crush the families and victims of crime. Who speaks for them? No one.”