June 2013  Child rapist Kevin Murphy MEET the sick child rapist who was living in a house with children after hiding his dark criminal past from his new girlfriend. Child rapist Kevin Murphy – originally from Glenbeigh, Co. Kerry – has been living in Dundalk, Co. Louth since his release from prison in 2008. To his neighbours, Murphy (36), appeared to be a normal construction worker who had settled down with a local girl and her kids. But little did Murphy’s infatuated partner know that her boyfriend had a conviction for raping a 12-year-old girl. Murphy’s ability to slip anonymously into an unsuspecting community once again highlights how the law is failing to protect the public from sex offenders. Unlike in the UK, parents cannot apply to the gardai to be told whether their child may have been in contact with a sexual offender. In 2004 Murphy was jailed for six years for brutally raping a terrified child in her bed following a boozy night out. In court, the sicko tried to claim he had ‘mistaken’ the girl for her mother after a night’s heavy drinking. But what the court never heard was that the horrific rape was just one of a number of child abuse allegations made against Murphy. He was also accused of sexually abusing two other underage girls – an 11-year-old and a nine-year-old – in Co. Kerry the 1990s. A file was sent to the DPP in relation to the nine-year-old, but no charges were ever laid. Murphy had reinvented himself as a ordinary family man in Co. Louth. He managed to strike up a relationship with a local woman and moved into the home she shared with her two kids. In his new life, Murphy had regular and unsupervised access to children – many of whom came in and out of the house. It is believed the woman has ended the relationship after being formally warned about the pervert’s sick past. A source said gardai in the Co. Louth area are aware of Murphy’s criminal past and have met and spoken with him. “He has been spending a lot of his recent time in Co. Kerry with his family, but he was back up here in recent weeks,” said a source. “Murphy had been living in Louth Village until last year on a street where groups of kids can be regularly seen playing. “I believe his relationship has come to an end, but he still has ties in the area. He was back up here last month.” Gardai have continued to monitor Murphy, who is regarded as being a “risk to children” despite completing his prison sentence. A prison insider claimed that Murphy refused to engage with a sex offenders programme in Arbour Hill Prison. He also refused to participate in a therapeutic course made available to him by the probation services outside the jail since his release. December 2004 Man jailed for rape of girl he ‘thought was her mother’ A MAN who raped a 12-year-old girl but said he thought he was having sex with her mother has been jailed for six years by at the Central Criminal Court. Kevin Murphy (27) pleaded guilty to committing the rape on February 11, 2003. The court heard he committed the offence after drinking 20 pints of beer. Justice Carney suspended the final 18 months of the sentence because Mr Murphy’s early guilty plea left a trial slot available “for the case of another violent person”. He also directed that Mr Murphy be certified as a sex offender and that he undergo three years post-release supervision. Counsel for Murphy earlier told Justice Carney that his client wanted to go to jail to get treatment for his chronic alcohol problem and was “quite serious” about that because he was “appalled by this matter”. The court was told that Mr Murphy, of Seaview Terrace, Glenbeigh, Co Kerry, “feels that the person who did this is nobody he knows and he has to live the rest of his life knowing he had illegal sex with a child”. Mr Murphy told gardai he spent most of the day drinking and left his own home late at night to go to the victim’s house. He came into it via the back door, which was open. In the room, which was in total darkness, he saw a figure sleeping on a couch whom he thought was the victim’s mother. He said he had sex with the person lying there and only realised it was the then 12-year-old girl when she woke and screamed. He told gardai he ran from the house immediately.