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Brute Declan Power freed from prison after serving19 years for murdering wife & suspected lover in jealous rage

• 18:55, 1 Apr 2022
• Updated: 18:55, 1 Apr 2022

A BRUTE who killed his wife and her suspected lover in a jealous rage has been freed from prison.

Declan Power was let out on a “renewable” temporary release at the beginning of March after serving 19 years of a double life sentence.

It is understood that a number of conditions were attached to this release which can often include no alcohol, a curfew and reporting to the local Garda station every day.

Power, 65, from Ardmore, Co Waterford stabbed his then 40-year-old wife Joan to death with a kitchen knife at their home in March 2002 after a row.

He believed she was having an affair with her former boss, publican Maurice Curran, who owned The Decies Bar, in nearby Clashmore village. Mrs Power had worked in the pub for a number of years.

He then called in the early hours of the morning to the bar to confront the married father-of-three.

He shot Maurice Curran twice at the front of his pub and then discharged a third bullet as he tried to run away. The publican collapsed and died on the roadside.

Power, a mechanic by trade, returned to his house and telephoned the Gardai at 5am to tell them he had killed his wife.

Mr Curran’s body was discovered on the road by a taxi driver returning from neighbouring Youghal.

The crimes shocked the picturesque tourist hotspot of Ardmore and Power pleaded guilty to the two killings at his trial.

The court heard the murders were totally out of character for him, and that he was deeply remorseful and suicidal about what he did.

He admitted he was a deeply suspicious, possessive, and jealous individual.

The row with his wife started because she mysteriously went to Dublin two days earlier and he thought she was having an affair with Mr Curran.

Power was handed two life sentences to run concurrently. A life sentence in Ireland currently runs at around 19-and-a-half years.

Power served his sentence in Cork prison.

A prison source said: “Power was let out at the beginning of March after doing his time. It was approved by the Parole Board.

“We don’t believe he will reoffend again or is a danger to society.