Date fixed in sex offender’s case

A HIGH COURT judge has fixed the extradition hearing of a fugitive British sex offender for later this month.

Yesterday at the High Court Mr Justice Michael Peart agreed that an application by the British authorities to extradite John Murrell, aged 39, with an address in Athy, Co Kildare, should be heard on November 21.

The court was told that the hearing should take about half a day. A previous sitting of the High Court heard that Murrell, who was living in a Co Kildare town for the past seven years, was opposing the extradition application.

Murrell was arrested in September and subsequently remanded in custody to Cloverhill Prison.

Murrell went missing after failing to register with the British authorities following his early release from prison in September 2000. In late September he was traced to Athy by gardaí acting on foot of a European Arrest Warrant. It is understood the authorities were tipped off by locals who recognised Murrell after the case was featured on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme and on websites.

Murrell was last heard of in Worcestershire in 2000. West Mercia police had been leading the search.

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.