Parents happy with attacker’s sentence

The parents of a 13-year-old girl whose attempted abduction led to the arrest of a convicted rapist, said they are glad their ordeal is over.

They said they are relieved that “the roads are safe for another while for the young girls and young women of this country”.

The couple, who cannot be named to protect their daughter’s identity, said they were happy with the 13-year sentence imposed on Dermot Murphy, aged 43, of Atlantic Coast Apartments, Tramore, Co Waterford.

He had pleaded guilty at Mullingar Circuit Court to attempted abduction, assault causing harm and attempted child-trafficking of the teenager in the Midlands last July, and to attempting to abduct and threatening to kill a 20-year-old woman in Laois in 2007.

Murphy, who has a previous convictions for raping a girl of 12, attempted to drag the two victims into a white van to sexually assault them.

The teenager’s family said their daughter was “very, very lucky” to escape.

Sentencing, Judge Tony Hunt said it was “only her bravery, strength, clear presence of mind, and sense of purpose that saved her from the appalling fate that Murphy had in mind for her”.