– Life along the Slaney

Convcited rapist Larry Murphy

They seek him here. They seek him there. And for a brief 24hour period last weekend, the residents of north Wexford thought they saw him everywhere.

The whereabouts of Larry Murphy was the only topic of conversation anywhere in Gorey, Courtown, Castletown, Kilmuckridge and everywhere else in north Wexford last weekend. It was also one of the main topics of conversation in the ether of the internet with tweets and comments speculating that Murphy was living in this house or visiting this beach or drinking in this pub.

In reality Murphy was nowhere near north Wexford and was certainly not drinking in a pub in Courtown or driving a Fiesta around Gorey as had been claimed. The people who organised the protest outside a house in Riverchapel had taken these rumours and ran with them.

They used people’s (in particular women’s) natural fear to stoke the fire and generate what amounted to hysteria at one point in the small sea-side village of Courtown.

The reason they did it was out of fear and their desire to make sure the authorities (whoever they are) knew the people of Riverchapel and Courtown didn’t want Murphy in their midst.

The problem of course was that all this was done based on conjecture and rumour. Who knows who started the rumours on the internet – or why they did it?

Was it someone’s misjudged attempt at a joke which was picked up as gospel? Was it a malicious attempt to discredit the people living in the house in Riverchapel? We will probably never know.

The bigger issue emerging from this debacle is that the 60 to 70 people who gathered outside a house in Beachside on Friday morning felt they had no option but to take things into their own hands.

However misjudged the organisers were in their efforts, it still highlights a huge discrepancy in the justice system. While Minister Ahern has now said tagging of “ordinary criminals” will begin next month, it is a bit late for Murphy.

We seem to be too worried in this country about impinging on convicted criminals human rights while displaying a complete lack of regard for the safety and welfare of our law-abiding citizens.

Can you imagine how the young woman who was vicious and repeatedly raped by Murphy in February 2000 now feels? I can’t but I imagine she is not feeling too safe knowing her attacker is free.

I take into account that Murphy served every day of his sentence. It is not his fault that the Irish justice systems deems it an automatic right to give prisoners remission of 25percent of their sentence – even if they don’t engage in any counselling or treatment while inside.

I also realise that at the moment gardaí have Murphy under surveillance and know where he is at all times. That will not last however and eventually people will forget about Murphy and someone else will replace him as the focus of their hatred.

This is why I can understand where the people in north Wexford are coming from when 1,200 of them sign a petition calling for Murphy and his ilk not to be housed in the area.

While the protest outside the house in Beachside was not the right thing to do and caused widespread panic the reasons behind it where perfectly understandable.

People will never feel safe with criminals like Murphy being freed without supervision. The problem is there are hundreds of convicted rapists, paedophiles and murders living in Ireland at the moment without any way of knowing where they live or who they are.

The system needs to change and quickly before we see another situation like that in Courtown last weekend.