{"id":309638,"date":"2026-02-21T10:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T10:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/309638\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T10:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T10:05:08","slug":"where-is-larry-murphy-now-convicted-rapists-name-back-in-headlines-15-years-after-he-fled-ireland-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/309638\/","title":{"rendered":"Where is Larry Murphy now? Convicted rapist\u2019s name back in headlines 15 years after he fled Ireland \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the first time this week the two cases of the disappeared and murdered women Josephine \u201cJo Jo\u201d Dullard<\/a> (21) and Deirdre Jacob<\/a> (18) were linked by the Garda<\/a>. <\/p>\n

And now the name of convicted rapist Larry Murphy<\/a> is being mentioned for both of their assumed murders. More than 15 years after he was released from prison in Dublin<\/a> and left Ireland, his notoriety continues to grow.<\/p>\n

Jo Jo Dullard was making her way home from Dublin to Callan in Co Kilkenny<\/a> on the night of November 9th, 1995, when she vanished. She was hitching the last part of her journey, from Moone village in Co Kildare<\/a>, where she called a friend from a phone box. She hung up after saying a driver had just pulled in to offer her a lift. <\/p>\n

She was never seen or heard from again.<\/p>\n

Deirdre Jacob vanished on the afternoon of July 28th, 1998, near her family home at Roseberry in Newbridge<\/a>, Co Kildare. <\/p>\n

She had walked into Newbridge to organise a rent deposit for her second college year in London, where she was studying to be a teacher. Garda\u00ed<\/a> believe she was abducted from the roadside close to her home as she was returning there.<\/p>\n

On Monday, a disused quarry in Castleruddery Upper, west Co Wicklow<\/a>, was sealed off by garda\u00ed who began excavations. Garda headquarters confirmed the operation was part of the investigations into the murders of both women.<\/p>\n

Immediately one man\u2019s name emerged, linked to both women: Larry Murphy (60). He has long been a suspect for Deirdre Jacob\u2019s murder, but not so in the case of Jo Jo Dullard.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe disused quarry in Co Wicklow has been classified as a place of interest based on information passed to investigators. Photograph: Brian Lawless\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

So why is this all happening now? <\/p>\n

And why is Murphy\u2019s name now being connected to these two cases, one for the first time, more than 15 years after his release<\/a> from jail for rape and attempted murder?<\/p>\n

Garda sources said the disused quarry has been classified as a place of interest based on information passed to investigators in the period after Deirdre Jacob went missing. <\/p>\n

More recently the quarry was pinpointed again by a witness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe information was more specific, about a location, rather than just nominating the quarry. It\u2019s a huge site so you\u2019d really need specifics, and the information had that,\u201d said one source. <\/p>\n

The tip-off, the source added, suggested a suspicious burial at the quarry, perhaps of a vehicle, containing remains or other evidence.<\/p>\n

Other Garda sources said the information came from a person who was regarded as credible after they were interviewed by detectives. <\/p>\n

As significant searches are time-consuming and expensive, and a major ordeal for the families of the victims, only a tip-off that is deemed credible and specific would result in a big search operation such as the one seen this week.<\/p>\n

Murphy was well known to frequent the area around the quarry. A Wicklow man, his home in Baltinglass in the 1990s is just more than 8km from the quarry. <\/p>\n

The search site is even closer to Kilranelagh \u2013 at just 6km \u2013 where he was caught 26 years ago, almost to the week, with a woman he had just abducted, beaten and raped and whom garda\u00ed believe he was about to kill.<\/p>\n

Murphy punched the woman in the face after she left her place of work in Carlow town on the night of Friday, February 11th, 2000. He forced her into his car, beat her and tied her up, placing a hood over her head. <\/p>\n

She was driven, in the boot of Murphy\u2019s car, for about 14km to Beaconstown, near Maganey, just north of Carlow, where Murphy raped her. <\/p>\n

He then drove up into the Wicklow Mountains to Kilranelagh and raped the woman twice while parked up on a dirt track.<\/p>\n

As he placed a plastic bag over her head and began strangling and suffocating his victim, some two hours into her ordeal, he was disturbed by two men out hunting. They were armed with rifles and were carrying lights.<\/p>\n

Murphy saw them and fled, with the men rescuing the woman, who survived. They also recognised Murphy and told garda\u00ed who he was, leading to his arrest almost immediately.<\/p>\n

He is a father of three and his wife was pregnant at the time. After fleeing the scene that night he went home and climbed into bed with his wife. Garda\u00ed at the time felt strongly that the crime was so shocking and his reaction at being caught so calm that it was not his first offence.<\/p>\n

And so they began considering him as a suspect in the disappearances and assumed murders of at least six women who vanished without trace in the Leinster area between 1993 and 1998: Fiona Sinnott, Jo Jo Dullard, Deirdre Jacob, Ciara Breen, Fiona Pender and Annie McCarrick.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed now believe Fiona Sinnott, Ciara Breen, Fiona Pender and Annie McCarrick were killed by men they knew and their bodies hidden to the conceal the murders.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0How tip-off about land near Larry Murphy\u2019s home led to digOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

However, the cases of Deirdre Jacob and Jo Jo Dullard are considered different. <\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed believe predatory men, who did not know their victims, spotted them alone and snatched them in opportunistic, sexually-motivated crimes.<\/p>\n

The quarry searched this week as part of the Deirdre Jacob and Jo Jo Dullard murders is clearly on Murphy\u2019s former stomping ground. <\/p>\n

But the search appears to be more connected to the Deirdre Jacob case than the Jo Jo Dullard investigation.<\/p>\n

The suggestion of suspicious activities at the quarry relates to the period when Deirdre Jacob vanished. <\/p>\n

However, because of the location \u2013 Jo Jo Dullard vanished just 17km away \u2013 garda\u00ed are open to the possibility the suspicious activity might relate to the cases of either woman. And so both families were warned in advance of the excavation starting.<\/p>\n

The Irish Times understands the killings are not being linked in any meaningful way. For example, detectives do not believe the women were killed by the same man.<\/p>\n

In the Jo Jo Dullard case, a suspect was arrested in November 2024, but freed without charge after denying any involvement in her disappearance. The man arrested was not Murphy.<\/p>\n

In 2021, garda\u00ed investigating Deirdre Jacob\u2019s disappearance sent a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions. But no charges were directed against Murphy as the evidence was not deemed strong enough. Garda\u00ed believe Murphy was in Newbridge on the day Deirdre Jacob was snatched just outside the town. <\/p>\n

An unidentified man was captured on CCTV in the post office in the town around the time Deirdre Jacob was there. <\/p>\n

However, the quality of the footage was poor and even specialist technical analysis could not determine if it was Murphy, as garda\u00ed believe, or somebody else.<\/p>\n

There were supposed sightings in the area on the day of Deirdre Jacob\u2019s disappearance of a woman in the footwell of a car, possibly Murphy\u2019s, either laughing or crying.<\/p>\n

\"LarryLarry Murphy left Ireland after his release from jail, spending time in Spain and Amsterdam before settling in England. Photograph: Alan Betson <\/p>\n

Former prisoners also told garda\u00ed when Murphy was in jail with them he claimed to have murdered, possibly twice. They say Murphy claimed to have pulled in by the roadside outside Newbridge the day Deirdre Jacob vanished and engaged her on the pretence of looking for directions. It was claimed that he punched her and bundled her into his car before fleeing and later killing her.<\/p>\n

Murphy\u2019s conviction and imprisonment in 2001, for the attack on his woman victim the previous year, were extensively covered by the media at the time. <\/p>\n

However, his notoriety grew while he was in jail because the cases of the missing women were reported on extensively during the years of imprisonment and his name was regularly cited.<\/p>\n

The cases were also investigated, for any possible links, though none were found, under the Garda\u2019s Operation Trace. The term \u201cthe vanishing triangle\u201d was coined in reference to the greater Leinster area where the women disappeared. <\/p>\n

The hyper focus of the media on the cases for the decade Murphy was in jail meant when he was freed from Dublin\u2019s Arbour Hill Prison in August 2010, a large media presence gathered outside. He was photographed and filmed and followed around Dublin for the day, including by press photographers on motorcycles.<\/p>\n

Murphy subsequently left the country, spending time in Spain and Amsterdam. In the Dutch city he lived for a time with a former cellmate, who was freed two years before him. <\/p>\n

Rory O\u2019Connor (58), who is originally from Dublin but had an address in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, was jailed for 10 years for rape and sexual assault in 2002. He is currently back in prison, serving a life term for murdering his fiancee Diane Nichol (57) in Hawick, Scotland in August 2021. <\/p>\n

Murphy returned to Ireland from Spain in May 2011 to obtain a new passport and remained for a month.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The myth of Ireland\u2019s \u2018vanishing triangle\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

However, his arrival was monitored closely, including by press photographers, who also followed him leaving the country through Rosslare on a ferry for Cherbourg, France.<\/p>\n

He later appears to have settled in London and is believed to be there still. He has worked in construction and in logistics in the years since his release. He was last photographed by the media after being spotted in Manchester in 2015.<\/p>\n

He has had a long-term relationship with a woman in London, where the Metropolitan Police has been aware of his location and has shared information about him with the Garda. But he remains at liberty and is free to travel and work anywhere in Europe. <\/p>\n

One assumes he will be aware of the searches in Co Wicklow this week. <\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed believe he is likely the only person in the world who knows for certain if the quarry searched is of any significance in the Deirdre Jacob investigation. <\/p>\n

Detectives investigating Deirdre Jacob\u2019s murder in 2018 went to the UK to speak to Murphy, though he did not engage with them.<\/p>\n

That approach is unlikely to change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time this week the two cases of the disappeared and murdered women Josephine \u201cJo Jo\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,142676,615,631,1346,61,60,142677,3770,12969,43,7469],"class_list":{"0":"post-309638","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-deirdre-jacob","10":"tag-dublin","11":"tag-for-you","12":"tag-garda-siochana","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-jo-jo-dullard","16":"tag-kildare","17":"tag-kilkenny","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-wicklow"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}