Gardaí monitor released serial rapist

GARDAÍ are monitoring a vicious serial rapist whose presence in an apartment block has sparked alarm among women living there.

The issue reached national airwaves yesterday after a number of women in the block contacted the Joe Duffy show raising their concerns.

They said at least one woman had moved out from the apartments, located in the Inchicore area of Dublin’s south inner city.

The presence of released rapist Michael Murray in the apartment block became public after a resident downloaded his photograph from a newspaper website and stuck it up inside the complex.

Garda sources said they were not surprised people in the complex were alarmed: “If you looked into this man’s background, I don’t think you’d want your sister or daughter living there.”

Murray, 49, originally from Dublin’s south inner city, was released last July after serving less than 13 years of an 18-year sentence.

The last time he was free, in 1995, he raped four women in less than six days in Dublin and sexually assaulted two others.

Sentencing him in 1996, Mr Justice Vivian Lavan described his crimes as horrific: “Reading the statements of the six individual victims would almost render one speechless at the indignity, horror and terror they were subjected to.”

Garda sources said Murray had contacted them when he moved into the area after being released from prison, as he is obliged to do as someone on the Sex Offenders’ Register.

One source said that he has had a number of meetings with a designated officer and so far he has attended those.

There is a dedicated Garda liaison officer for these offenders in each division and a community sergeant is tasked with monitoring sex offenders in their district.

It is understood there are around 40 sex offenders on the register in the Garda A district, covering Dublin’s south west inner city.

“We try and monitor these individuals as best we can,” said a Garda source. “It is difficult and requires a lot of time and effort.”

Garda sources said Murray would be considered their most dangerous sex offender in the A district. Some gardaí suspect that Murray may now move out. “With a guy like this we need to know where he lives.”