Accustomed as I am, having reached middle age, to having my senses dulled by repeatedly hearing about the worst excesses of the world, there are now relatively few occasions when I actually feel incandescent with anger and frustration.

But then I read, almost in disbelief, that a depraved serial rapist – a man who raped a child, was released from prison early, went on to rape an 85-year old woman repeatedly in her home, and was then released from prison early AGAIN – cannot be located by Gardaí. As the Irish Mirror reported:

Notorious double rapist Simon McGinley has vanished following his release from prison – and has failed to check in with gardaí in recent weeks as required, we can exclusively reveal. This is now leading to fears for the safety of women.

Evil Simon McGinley, 52, walked free from the Midlands Prison at the end of June after completing a sentence he received last year for breaching the conditions of the Sex Offenders Act.

As part of his release conditions, he is under the supervision of the Probation Service for the next 12 years. He has also been placed on the Sex Offenders Register for the rest of his life.

But sources tell us that he has gone off the garda radar in the past few weeks – and a summons has been obtained by gardai to bring him back to court.

“He hasn’t been seen by gardai nor the Probation Services in the past few weeks which is a huge worry as he is required to check in with gardai and the Probation Services as part of the conditions of the Sex Offenders Act,” a source said, adding: “He’s basically on the loose as no-one in authority knows where he is now based.”

“He’s on the loose”. A man who never have been let out of prison given his appalling record and the sheer depravity of his attacks – a man described as a “very dangerous individual” and a “highly volatile sexual predator” – has now “gone off the garda radar”. This country is a joke, but this is not one bit funny.

Simon McGinley is a violent, brutal, deviant who has been repeatedly let loose on Irish society despite being an obvious and immediate danger to women. He was released early TWICE from prison despite committing heinous, unforgivable crimes against two extremely vulnerable people.

Now he has taken advantage of our reckless, stupid leniency towards the worst of criminals to effectively vanish. How can this be allowed to happen? Does the safety of women in this country not matter a damn?

THE ACTIONS OF A MONSTER 

McGinley was jailed for 12 years in 1998 after pleading guilty to raping the 13-year-old girl at the centre of the high-profile C case in 1997. Although just a child herself, she had been babysitting his children on the night that he brutally assaulted her.  On the pretext of bringing he home, he trapped her in his van, punched her in the face, beat her, and then savagely raped her. These are the actions of a monster.

The suffering and trauma he caused didn’t end there. As the judge who sentenced McGinley to twelve years in prison in 1998 said to him, not only had he violated an innocent girl, and used violence against her to achieve that, but his action had also led to the death of another child through abortion. His victim was only 13 and the effect on her had been devastating. She had endured much, not only from the rape but from what followed, the judge added.

In fact, that girl, now an enormously brave young woman, later spoke out to say that she had not been aware that the state was bringing her for an abortion. She spoke about her suffering and said: “I never got schooling or anything like that. I’ve tried to kill myself. I don’t know how many times I’ve tried to kill myself. But I have a little five- year-old son now so he’s keeping me, he is the best thing that has ever happened me now.”

That’s just one of the consequences of violent sexual assault: the trauma can last a lifetime. What must it be like for women who have been subjected to such a terrifying violation, followed by the endurance of an investigation and trial, only to learn that the brutal criminal who attacked them is going to be released early into the community?

It must be simply horrifying: prompting a reliving of the worst experience of their lives and an ongoing fear that the same person might now be free to assault them again. Why should anyone have to live with that fear?

But McGinley didn’t serve 12 years for raping a 13-year old child. He was released after 6 years – he had only served half of the sentence.

It’s worth looking at the timeline in this case. He was sentenced in 1998, but in actual fact the last four years were suspended. In addition it is standard, apparently, for a full quarter of a prison sentence to be waived as remission. Why? Partly because of overcrowding, and also likely partly because of the unbelievably stupid mentality that insists that violent, dangerous people shouldn’t be in prison.

So he was released in 2003, having “energetically attending” the sex offenders program in Arbour Hill, according to the Irish Examiner. Clearly, given the depravity of his acts after he was released, the program attendance was nothing more than twisted manipulation of a psychopath.

In 2008, when he should have still been in prison if he had served his full sentence, a drunken McGinley pushed his way into the house of an 85-year old woman and repeatedly raped her. The victim’s daughter told the court that the horrendous attack had taken all the joy from her mother’s life, from a woman who had previously “valued her independence” but was now unable to function on her own as “fear is never far from the surface”.

It’s an indisputable fact that if McGinley had been serving his sentence, he wouldn’t have been free to mercilessly rape and 85-year old women. The system that allows this to happen needs radical and urgent overhaul. As my colleague John McGuirk has pointed out, prison isn’t just there as a deterrent or as punishment, though those are useful purposes – it also exists to keep the rest of us from harm, to lock away those who would harm us. But the system is broken when those who would harm us are being released early to do more terrible harm.

Judge George Bermingham imposed a 21 year sentence for the second attack – the second on record that is – and ordered 12 years post release supervision. He said that the attack was one of the worst he had heard, noting the “age and the fragility of the victim” – and that it was hard to believe that the same person could be capable of raping a 13-year-old girl and an 85-year-old woman.

The judge also said that he could find no mitigating circumstances and that if McGinley did not address his drinking problem “everyone from very young girls to very old women will be at risk.”

Yet, again, McGinley did not serve anything like the 21 year sentence. He was released after serving just 13 years. Why? It is inexplicable. There isn’t a pit deep enough, in my opinion, in which to cast someone who has repeatedly shown themselves capable of such evil, sickening crimes. Hell isn’t hot enough either.

This is someone who has deliberately chosen a path of diabolical cruelty and iniquity. He isn’t fit for society. Yet the system lets them out to walk amongst us. It fails to protect us.

This early release is based on conditions that are meant to reassure us. But McGinley breached the Sex Offenders Act after a year and was then sent to Midlands Prison – and was then released from there at the end of June.

Chillingly, the Independent reports that: “In January last year, a separate charge against McGinley of breaching the conditions of the Sex Offenders Act was struck out after it was disclosed that the alleged injured party – an elderly woman – in the case did not want to attend court.”

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? 

Now we are reduced to sharing what’s app messages with a photo of this evil double rapist who Gardaí can’t find, warning our friends and our daughters to be on alert. No wonder I, and so many women, feel incandescent with anger and frustration.

My anger isn’t just at the vile and brutal criminal acts of Simon McGinley, but at the system that seems to protect him and those like him instead of the ordinary people who deserve to be protected from violence and rape and harm. Its an absolute betrayal of victims to allow a man who has raped a child and an elderly lady out of prison after serving half his sentence.

I previously wrote of the likely influence that taxpayer-funded NGOs like the Irish Penal Reform Trust have on the State’s failure to build prisons – and on sentencing.

The IPRT says that “imprisonment itself causes serious social harms, and therefore should only be used sparingly at the point of sentencing when non-custodial alternatives are not available or are deemed inappropriate” – and opposes mandatory sentencing and “presumptive minimum’ sentencing – where a judge must apply a specific minimum penalty, except under exceptional circumstances.

It also boasts that it “clearly influenced the 2020 Programme for Government” and lists as one of its achievements the cancellation of plans to build a super-prison in Thornton Hall.

And so, Simon McGinley, an evil, violent, monstrous rapist is set free, and terrible criminals are serving half their sentences, and our prisons remain so over-crowded, and our system so horribly inadequate, that this will happen again and again.

We’re not even having a debate about the possible use of chemical castration for serial rapists, or the need to ensure a life sentence for serial rapists which might mean actually mean life. A possible site for a prison is being earmarked for an asylum centre, and meanwhile women feel less safe all the time.

It’s long past time that some one was held accountable for the unspeakable harm this is causing. And we can maybe start by ascertaining Simon McGinley’s whereabouts – and then asking the Minister to explain why serial rapists are being released early from prison and what he intends to do to reverse that trend.