A convicted sex offender described by a High Court judge as a \u201cdanger to young girls\u201d has been jailed for 11\u00bd years for the rape of a teenage girl who was getting intimate with his son.<\/p>\n
Richard Murphy (48) raped the then 16-year-old after coming across her and his son in the garden of the house next door to where he then lived as part of his bail conditions.<\/p>\n
He was on bail at the time for other sexual offences involving young girls, for which he has since been convicted and is serving a sentence. <\/p>\n
Murphy, of Rectory Heights, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, was convicted of rape and oral rape in October 2022 following a Central Criminal Court trial sitting in Waterford in June.<\/p>\n
He was on Monday handed a sentence of 11 years and six months consecutive to the sentence he is serving. <\/p>\n
The court was told that Angelique Schreuder was happy to waive her right to anonymity to allow Murphy to be named in reporting of the case. <\/p>\n
Imposing sentence, Judge Karen O\u2019Connor said it was aggravating that Murphy was on bail for sexual offences at the time of this offence. She noted his previous convictions relate to three young girls and include sexual assault and making threats. <\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor said the offending here was \u201cof a more serious nature\u201d and represented an \u201cescalation\u201d. She said it was the court\u2019s view that he had demonstrated \u201cpredatory behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis man, in the view of this court, is a danger to young girls,\u201d said the judge. <\/p>\n
She said it was \u201cegregious how this young girl was treated\u201d and noted that the injured party was \u201cparticularly vulnerable\u201d at the time.<\/p>\n
The judge said this was a \u201cparticularly disturbing case\u201d and that Murphy \u201cbehaved in a vile and devious manner in the way he treated this young vulnerable girl\u201d. She noted the injured party\u2019s impact statement referred to Murphy\u2019s \u201csense of entitlement\u201d in how he treated her that night.<\/p>\n
The judge said the injured party\u2019s victim-impact statement was \u201cvery coherent and powerful\u201d. <\/p>\n
She noted Schreuder described wanting to rip her skin off and crawl out of her body to get away from the feeling of violation and that what happened continues to affect her life. <\/p>\n
The judge said there was \u201climited mitigation\u201d in the case, noting Murphy does not accept the jury\u2019s verdicts, as is his right.<\/p>\n
She said where there is no expression of remorse and the verdict is not accepted, there are \u201cno conditions I can impose which are going to allay concerns of court\u201d. The judge noted Murphy is entitled not to acknowledge guilt.<\/p>\n
She said the court was aware of his background in training with the GAA and had considered testimonials provided by Murphy\u2019s two adult children and his parents. <\/p>\n
The judge said the court would impose a consecutive sentence as these offences were committed while Murphy was on bail. She imposed a sentence of 11 years and six months in respect of the rape count and a concurrent eight-year sentence in relation to the count of oral rape.<\/p>\n
The judge directed that the sentence of 11 years and six months should be consecutive to the sentence Murphy is serving, for which he has an earliest release date in October 2027. <\/p>\n
She also extended legal aid in the event of an appeal.<\/p>\n
Wishing Schreuder well for the future, the judge said: \u201cYou are a very brave young woman and very courageous.\u201d<\/p>\n
The court heard Schreuder and Murphy\u2019s son were socialising at a party and had engaged in consensual sexual activity in the garden of the house.<\/p>\n
Murphy arrived and told his son to go inside. He then asked the injured party for details of who her parents were and she made up answers.<\/p>\n
She was in a state of partial undress and Murphy did not allow her to pull up her clothing. <\/p>\n
He orally raped the injured party, then raped her. There was a shout for him and Murphy told the injured party not to tell anyone before he left.<\/p>\n
She told her friends and they then left the party. She was very upset and the judge noted her evidence that she was terrified when she realised she was about to be raped.<\/p>\n
The judge noted Murphy\u2019s defence was that he asked the injured party for her details because he was concerned for his son, then left with his son.<\/p>\n
The judge noted that evidence during the trial was that Murphy\u2019s son returned to the party alone and that Murphy disappeared for a period of time, with his then partner looking for him. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A convicted sex offender described by a High Court judge as a \u201cdanger to young girls\u201d has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-559559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559559","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=559559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}