Application for extradition of sex offender adjourned

THE High Court has adjourned an application for the extradition of a fugitive British sex offender who was living in a Co Kildare town for the past seven years.

Mr Justice Michael Peart yesterday agreed to adjourn for two weeks the proceedings against John Murrell, aged 39, with an address in Athy, Co Kildare. Murrell remains in custody.

The court was told the adjournment, on the consent of both sides, was to allow lawyers to study the charges against Murrell as set out in the warrant.

Murrell was arrested last month and subsequently remanded in custody to Cloverhill Prison. A previous sitting of the High Court heard he opposed the extradition application.

Murrell went missing after failing to register with the British authorities following his early release from prison in September 2000. His case was featured on the BBC programme, Crimewatch. In late September he was traced to Athy by gardaí acting on foot of a European arrest warrant.

Murrell was last heard of in Worcestershire in 2000. He failed to report to the probation hostel he was assigned to on his release from prison where he served half his sentence for three counts of indecent assault and one count of indecency with a nine-year-old. He was told he could only see his children under supervision, but within weeks of his release the Murrell family had allegedly disappeared.