Speaking today, Tom told how his monster half-brother, who represented himself at trial, desperately tried to cross examine him and the other victims in a bid to control them once again
05:00, 10 Dec 2025Updated 08:03, 10 Dec 2025
Tom Ryan (Left) and half-brother Philip Murphy (right) who abused him and others over several years
Notorious rapist Philip Murphy tried to intimidate his victims by attempting to cross-examine them himself at trial, a survivor has told.
Murphy (45), who is one of Ireland’s most infamous abusers, was this week jailed for a further 15 years for the rape and sexual abuse of his half-brother Tom Ryan (37) – and two women, when they were just children. Speaking yesterday, Tom told how his monster half-brother, who represented himself at trial, desperately tried to cross-examine him and the other victims in a bid to control them once again.
Thankfully the Judge did not allow this to occur – but now Tom is calling on the government to change the legislation to ensure such a thing can never happen. “It was horrible to hear the things he was saying. It was disgusting to have to go through the process where they decided whether he could represent himself. The DPP had to get someone to cross-examine us. But we shouldn’t have to go through that process,” Tom told us.
“We need to change that bit of the legislation because we had to sit through a pre-trial and it was up to the Judge to decide whether he was going to impose a solicitor. Thankfully he said it would have been inhumane for Philip to cross-examine me and the girls. But if it had gone the other way, Philip would have got his way and I don’t think any of us would have given evidence then, we would’ve had to give it behind the box or on a screen or something.”
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Tom, who was abused by Murphy from the age of six, says the evil predator deliberately used this tactic to once again try and control him after all these years. “He tried to intimidate, bully and harass us. He was trying to get the control back because he knew he’d lost control.”
Murphy had just gotten out of prison after serving a 10-year sentence for kidnapping a woman when he sexually assaulted another two women in a terrifying incident in February 2016. He then fled to the UK before being extradited back to Ireland and was subsequently jailed for six years for an attack which a court heard he repeatedly told one of the women “you’re going to die tonight.”
And now this Monday, Murphy was jailed for another 15 years after a court heard he engaged in a “protracted campaign of sexual abuse” against his half-brother, Mr Ryan, and two young girls he babysat on dates between 1994 and 1998. Tom, who has waived his anonymity so that Murphy can be named, says he and the other two victims were delighted with the sentence – and it is his hope that he never gets released.
Victim Tom Ryan (Left) and his half-brother abuser Philip Murphy (right)(Image: Tom Ryan/Collins)
Speaking about his relief at finally securing justice after all these years Tom added: “When the jury convicted him it was like someone removed a big boulder off my shoulders and said ‘we believe you’. For 12 strangers to tell us they believed us for me was just unbelievable. There was a fear of opening this bag for so long. The fear for me was do I take it all out and we get nowhere with this. What do I do then, you know?”
Tom also spoke of dealing with flashbacks to this day of the abuse he suffered – but of his hopes of finally being able to move forward, now that he has gotten justice. “It was horrific because you were trying to protect the family home and get it out there that we had no dealings with Philip and we didn’t want anything to do with him. It’s still there. I can still visualise the majority of these attacks. His smirky smile, where he knew what he was doing was wrong but he was enjoying the fact that he was hurting me. That will always be there.
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“But I’ve learned to live my life like a river. A river always flows forward. So I try not to look back. I got my day in court. I got my justice, I got a sentence I can say I’m happy with and now it’s time to say ‘let’s put this away now and move forward’,” he said.
Murphy was convicted of sexually assaulting Tom Ryan at Lindisfarne Vale on four occasions between March 1994 and September 1996. He was also convicted of sexually assaulting him at a place in Cork during a brief period when the family moved there. Murphy was aged 14 when he began abusing the six-year-old Tom in attacks that included anal rape. Mr Justice Paul Burns said that had Murphy been an adult at the time of his offending, he would have given serious consideration to a life sentence. Philip Murphy’s brother, Michael Murphy (48), was also jailed on Monday for four years for raping one of the girls.
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