Sanjeev Chada handed two life sentences for sons’ murders

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Sanjeev Chada was handed two life sentences for murdering his sons, Eoghan Chada and Ruairí. He pleaded guilty to both murders on 7 October 2014.

Eoghan Chada was 10 and his brother Ruairí was five. Chada strangled them with a rope at Ballintubber in Co Mayo on 29 July the previous year. The boys had been reported missing after failing to return from a Sunday evening bowling outing with their father.

Chada then attempted suicide by crashing his car into a wall near Westport. He told gardaí he had decided on the killings several days beforehand. His explanation was that he wanted to spare his sons the distress of discovering how badly he had behaved.

The court also heard about Chada’s gambling problem and the disappearance of 56,000 from a community centre fund for which he acted as treasurer.

In a victim impact statement, the boys’ mother Kathleen described believing that theirs was an ordinary family. She questioned how such evil could remain concealed in a father who appeared loving.