FG: Freedom makes mockery of pledge on sex offenders

THE release of the rapist Larry Murphy from Arbour Hill prison made a mockery of the Government’s promises to deal with such dangerous criminals.

This was the view of Fine Gael frontbench spokesman Charlie Flanagan. He said Justice Minister Dermot Ahern’s own strategy document from January 2009, on the management of sex offenders, said electronic tagging would be valuable for prisoners who did not cooperate with treatment options.

Mr Flanagan said these were precisely the circumstances surrounding Murphy, yet there was still no system in place to track and monitor his whereabouts due to the failure to pass a law to tag rapists on their release.