Clients of halfway house advised to stay away for safety

THE director of the prisoner halfway house which attracted a crowd of protesters who mistakenly believed Larry Murphy was staying there has said clients had to be told to stay away because of fears over their safety.

A crowd of more than 60 people gathered outside the Priorswood House facility in Coolock on Thursday evening after rumours spread that Murphy, 45, was staying there.

The convicted rapist, released from prison on Thursday morning after more than 10 years in jail, had earlier complained to gardaí in Coolock that he was being pursued by the media.

Priorswood House has never catered for sex offenders and the facility’s director, Lisa Cuthbert, said the situation escalated rapidly on Thursday evening.

Ms Cuthbert said a staff member who lives in the area had alerted them to a rumour that Larry Murphy had been seen near the facility and that a crowd was gathering.

At the time, 10 residents and four staff were in Priorswood House and Ms Cuthbert said: “It was very difficult for them.

“We had to ring them [residents] who were out and say ‘do not come back if you can’ because we were concerned for their safety.”

A number of Facebook sites have sprung up since Murphy’s release purporting to track his movements, and based on contributions from members of the public.

Photographs of the demonstration in Coolock made it onto the Larry Murphy Tracker site, but gardaí needed to be called to defuse the situation and inform those gathered that Murphy was not in the facility.

Lisa Cuthbert said Larry Murphy was “a unique individual” with regard to the strong public opposition to his release, but she said: “Our policy around working with sex offenders is very clear – we never work with sex offenders in that project.

“We would hope that something like this would not have a negative impact on our work because that would have a negative impact on the community as a whole.

“We have always had a low profile and there has not been any issues in the community over the years,” she added.

Meanwhile, gardaí re-emphasised that they have comprehensive plan in place to deal with high risk sex offenders, such as Larry Murphy.

A spokesperson said: “An Garda Síochána’s priority is the safety of the community and our policy is directed towards maximising our ability to protect the community effectively.

“That is one of the reasons why gardaí cannot comment on individuals as the disclosure of information may make the management of risk more difficult.”