Joseph 'Joey' O’Callaghan, the youngest person ever to enter the Witness Protection Programme in Ireland, tells his story in the podcast series "The Witness: In His Own Words."
In the October 23 episode "The Parole Board" - the podcast's first new episode since March 2022 - Joey and his mother Mary prepare to meet the parole board for the first time.
In the episode, O'Callaghan talks about trying to find peace and lead something near a normal life while living with the unrelenting threat to his life.
But things are thrown further into turmoil when he hears that the murderers he gave evidence against, Brian Kenny and Tomas Hinchon, have again applied for parole.
You can listen to "The Parole Board," the newest episode from "The Witness: In His Own Words" here:
In mid-1990s Dublin, O'Callaghan, then aged 12, talked his way into an after-school job with the local milkman. It was the beginning of a decade spent in the heart of Dublin’s gangland, living under the violent and abusive control of Brian Kenny - milkman, gangster, drug dealer.
When he witnessed the aftermath of a rival gang member’s murder, O'Callaghan knew it was time to escape.
In 2005, O'Callaghan's testimony helped convict two drug-dealing gangsters for murder, and he became the youngest person ever to enter the Witness Protection Programme in Ireland.
From his teenage years spent trapped in the criminal underworld, to living as a grown man under a false identity, O'Callaghan's life exposes the deep scars caused by social deprivation, drug-fuelled gang warfare, and the callous arms of the state.
As the men he put away agitate for release, O'Callaghan tells his extraordinary life story in the podcast series "The Witness: In His Own Words." Released in 2021, the podcast has gone on to be downloaded more than four million times.
O’Callaghan says: “I once lived a normal life but something happened that changed my future forever. It was something simple. I got a job on a milk round. I was 12 and nothing was ever the same again.
"The journey I’ve been on since has brought me into a darkness I didn’t even know existed. I’ve seen things I don’t want to remember but can never forget. I’ve been scared, silenced, and brought to the brink of death. But I’m here. I survived.”
"The Witness: In His Own Words" has won the DMA Podcast of the Year 2021, The Irish Podcast Awards inaugural Podcast of the Year 2022, as well as Documentary Podcast of the Year 2022, and Moment of the Year 2022.
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