Call for serious offenders, including repeat rapists, to be tagged if released early

The chairman of the Oireachtas committee on justice has said that some serious offenders, including repeat rapists, should be electronically tagged if released from prison early.

Garda sources have indicated Cork-based Traveller, Patrick ‘Lo Lo’ O’Driscoll, who carried out two savage rapes within months of each other, should be tagged when he leaves jail early next month so they can keep a constant eye on his movements.

Fine Gael deputy David Stanton said he wouldn’t comment on individual cases but had seen at first hand in Finland how effective electronic tagging can be.

He said that a tagged person could be confined to a certain area and a signal would be sent to monitoring services if he went outside it.

In Finland contravening this would immediately lead to arrest.

“It is expensive, but not as costly as keeping somebody in jail, or having police patrols constantly monitoring a person,” he said.

Fellow Fine Gael deputy, Tom Barry, who lives just a few miles from O’Driscoll’s home at Coome, Glenville, said he also supported electronic tagging, especially if gardaí thought it was necessary.

Meanwhile, the director of the Cork Sexual Violence centre has also called for sex offenders at high risk of re-offending to be tagged upon leaving prison.

Mary Crilly’s call comes as the 47-year-old repeat rapist is to be released from the Midlands Prison on July 9.

O’Driscoll was sentenced in 2003 for a “savage, barbaric, and brutal attack on a totally innocent woman” in Fermoy, Co Cork — but was released six years early.

Ms Crilly said: “Something has to be done about monitoring sex offenders. Tagging is talked about and then it’s not talked about and so nothing happens. But I am once again concerned about the safety of girls and women with the release of this man.”

She believes that sex offenders should be named in court and that each garda station should contain a list of offenders who live in the neighbourhood.

Ms Crilly called for compulsory, intensive, residential programmes for offenders upon release from jail.

The trainers on these courses will quickly ascertain if the offender really wants to reform, she said.

“The necessary funding isn’t being put into the community management of offenders and neither is the policy behind it robust enough. The gardaí are doing the best they can do but without the funding or legislative support,” she said.

A Department of Justice spokeswoman last night said the planned Sexual Offences Bill includes provisions for tagging.

“In December, the Government approved the drafting of the Sexual Offences Bill. The general scheme of the Bill includes provisions for the electronic monitoring of convicted sex offenders in specific circumstances. This legislation is being drafted,” the spokeswoman said.