Gemma Ahern was just three years old when her father stabbed her mother to death in the family home. Carol Quinton was stabbed 36 times with a pair of scissors and died from her injuries, aged 26. The attack occurred in 1992 after her father confronted her about seeing another person. Gemma was in the house at the time and was dropped off with the police by her father when he handed himself in.
He admitted manslaughter but was cleared of murder. The court heard he had no memory of the fatal attack, which happened during an argument. The judge accepted the actions were out of character and sentenced him to four years in prison, of which he served around two years. He retained parental rights over Gemma, who lived with his parents while he was in prison and then with him after his release in the Greater Manchester area.
Gemma, now 36 and living in Buckley, Flintshire, is calling for Jade's Law to be brought into force. The law would suspend parental rights of parents who kill someone they have children with, at the point of sentencing. Speaking to North Wales Live, she said: 'It is so important to speak out now because it is giving my mum a voice. My dad just completely eradicated her off the planet, as if she was nothing.'
She described how her father's return from prison was presented as exciting, with no mention of why he had been away. She said: 'No one ever told me that he was in jail, it was that he was working away.' She felt unable to talk about her mother, saying: 'I knew you're not allowed to talk about mum.' She left home at 19 but continued working for the family business for 17 years, seeing her father daily.
After moving to North Wales and stopping work for the company, she began to process the trauma. She said: 'You can't process or heal any trauma when you're in it. It's impossible.' She now wants to raise awareness and support for children in similar situations, adding: 'There's so much shame, we carry so much shame for what our parent did, and you think it's your shame but now I'm stepping out of that, it is not my shame to carry, it's his.'
