Priest says 'I forgive you' in court to juvenile who stabbed him seven times
Fr Paul Murphy at the Criminal Courts of Justice after giving a victim impact statement. Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin
It was a moment that stunned and moved court practitioners hardened by years of dealing with murder and rape cases.
The sight of Fr Paul Murphy reaching out to his attacker and placing his left hand on the boy’s shoulder and talking intimately with him, with the boy placing his hand on the priest's back, stopped people in their tracks.
The priest’s left arm had suffered the brunt of deep wounds from an eight-inch hunting knife, with a serrated blade, that the then 16-year-old boy used in an Islamist-inspired attack.
The boy, now 17, sustained his onslaught over some 90 seconds and a distance of 25 metres, inflicting seven serious injuries, partially severing the arms, though none were fatal.
Fr Murphy, aged 53, told the Central Criminal Court that a religious “intercession” protected him that night and that his "guardian angel" also intervened.
The attack took place at around 10.40pm on August 15, 2024, at the entrance to Renmore Barracks, Galway city, where Fr Murphy, a Defence Forces chaplain, was based.
The court heard the boy, who pleaded guilty to attempted murder, had been radicalised online by Islamic State propaganda.
During an emotional victim impact statement to Mr Justice Paul McDermott, Fr Murphy turned around to the boy seated behind him and said: “As a man of faith, I am in the business of forgiveness, and I offer to you, the young man standing accused before me, the forgiveness that will hopefully help you to become a better person.”
The boy, who had been looking intently at the priest, leaned towards him and said: “I’m sorry.”
Fr Murphy twisted around in the witness box to face the boy: “I believe you are 17 now, so you will hopefully have another 80 years of living on this earth.
The boy leaned forward again and said: “Thank you.”
Fr Murphy continued: “Life is for living and for loving, and, I promise you, your life will find its ultimate joy when you live honourably and love generously.”
The impact statement followed evidence from Detective Sergeant Paul McNulty, who went through CCTV footage showing much of the attack.
In it, Fr Murphy’s jeep stopped outside the gates to the barracks, when someone approached his driver’s door and said he wanted to ask him a question.
When the priest lowered his window about halfway, the boy took out a knife and “lunged” at him and started stabbing.
CCTV images show Fr Murphy’s jeep moving forward through the gates, but his attacker held onto the door and continued to stab, the images showing his arm raising into the air and driving down repeatedly.
The car went out of view and eventually came to a stop 20m inside. However, the assault continued.
Soldiers shouted at the attacker to stop and fired five warning shots into the air, distracting the boy long enough for personnel to tackle him to the ground.
Fr Murphy said his attacker “came to kill” him and that if his driver window had been fully down, he would “be dead”.
He told Mr Justice McDermott that while he can “personally forgive” his attacker that he had committed an “appalling crime”.
Fr Murphy said: “He has offended our State; he has offended the Irish Defence Forces, and he has offended every soldier who has walked through the gate of our barracks, because it could have been any one of them who was stabbed.”
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