'Dangerous sexual predator' jailed for 15 years, brother jailed for four

Declan Brennan and Isabel Hayes

A “most dangerous sexual predator” has been jailed for 15 years for the repeated rape and sexual abuse of his younger brother and two young girls 30 years ago.

Philip Murphy (45) engaged in a “protracted campaign of sexual abuse” against his half-brother, Thomas Ryan, and two young girls he babysat on dates between 1994 and 1998, Mr Justice Paul Burns said when sentencing him at the Central Criminal Court on Monday.

Philip Murphy's brother, Michael Murphy (48), was jailed today for four years for raping one of the girls.

Philip Murphy, of no fixed abode, was convicted after a trial at the Central Criminal Court last October of 15 counts of rape and sexual assault of the three victims at various locations, including the Murphy family home in Clondalkin, west Dublin. He continues to deny the charges and represented himself at trial.

His half-brother, Mr Ryan, waived his anonymity so Murphy could be named.

In relation to the two sisters he abused, the court heard Murphy threatened the older girl that he would abuse her younger sister and kill her father if she did not comply with his demands. He was aged between 13 and 17 at the time of the offending, and his victims were all young children.

On one occasion, when the older sister got a kitchen knife to protect herself from being raped, Murphy grabbed her younger sister and started abusing her in the bathroom before the older girl surrendered to him and was taken upstairs and raped by Murphy.

“Despite her compliance, Murphy went on to abuse the younger sister anyway,” Mr Justice Paul Burns said when sentencing Murphy on Monday.

Mr Justice Burns said that had Murphy been an adult at the time of his offending, he would have given serious consideration to a life sentence.

“Even at the young age of 13, he knew it was not just wrong, but gravely and seriously wrong,” the judge said, adding his culpability grew as he aged.

Murphy has a number of previous convictions and is serving a 10-year sentence for two random sex attacks on women in Dublin city centre, days after being released from custody for other offences. He repeatedly told one of those victims: “You're going to die tonight.”

Mr Justice Burns said he considered Philip Murphy “a most dangerous sexual predator” and “an ongoing danger to society”. He handed down a sentence of 15 years and ordered that it run from Monday's date.

He further ordered that Murphy remain under post-release supervision for a period of 10 years from his release from custody.

When Murphy stood up to take issue with his sentence starting from Monday's date, Mr Justice Burns pointed out that he had given serious consideration as to whether it should in fact start after the term Murphy is currently serving.

The judge thanked the three complainants in court for their courage in coming forward and giving evidence. “I want to make it clear to each of them that none of this was their fault,” he said. “The blame and shame rest solely on (Murphy).”

Mr Justice Paul Burns also sentenced Michael Murphy to four years for the single count of raping one of the sisters abused by Philip Murphy.

The jury convicted Michael Murphy of Cushlawn Dale, Tallaght, Dublin 24 of rape on an unknown date sometime in 1993 and 1994 at Lindisfarne Vale, Clondalkin. The victim was aged between six and seven, and he was aged around 16 or 17.

The Murphys' mother was babysitting the girl, and Michael Murphy followed her into a bedroom and raped her. He held his hand over her mouth during the attack and told her to “shut up or he would kill her dad if she opened her mouth”.

The victim told gardaí later that she believed this threat. This woman was one of the two sisters abused by Philip Murphy.

The judge said the offending by Michael Murphy was serious and must have contributed to the serious difficulties experienced by the complainant. He noted he has a number of minor convictions and a history of drug abuse.

He handed down a five-year sentence and suspended the final year on a number of convictions.

Abuse of half brother

Philip Murphy was convicted of sexually assaulting his half brother Thomas Ryan, at Lindisfarne Vale on four occasions between March 1994 and September 1996. He was also convicted of sexually assaulting him at a place in Cork during a brief period when the family moved there.

Murphy was aged 14 when he began abusing the six-year-old boy. The abuse included groping and anal rape of the child.

Becoming tearful at times, Mr Ryan told the court that Philip Murphy was a monster who had groomed him from a very young age and controlled him for his own sexual gratification.

Mr Ryan described being tormented by flashbacks as an adult and said he has struggled with mental health and addiction all his life.

Addressing the defendant directly, he told him: “You stole my peace of mind, my happiness, my confidence...you've shown no remorse. I was a child. You were meant to protect me, not hurt me.”

The abuse and rape of the two sisters took place when Philip Murphy was left to mind them.

Philip Murphy was convicted of two counts of sexual assault and three counts of raping the first girl on dates between June 1995 and June 1997. The child was aged between eight and 10 during this time.

Victim impact statement

In her victim impact statement, this woman told the court that every day of her childhood became about survival and that Philip Murphy “could and did decide how, when and where” he would attack her.

She said that whenever she tried to stop him, he would threaten to rape her younger sister. She only realised later that he had been abusing this sister all along.

The younger sister was around four years old when she first remembers Philip Murphy sexually molesting her. He was convicted of three sexual assaults and one count of raping the girl during the years 1996 and 1998, when she was aged between four and six.

This woman told the court that she had no idea how young she was when the abuse started as none of the incidents ever felt like it wasn't normal.

“I will never have peace of mind not knowing,” she said. She described how debilitating flashbacks were a normal part of her adult life, day and night, and that she kept it all hidden from everyone around her.

She said the childhood abuse affects her relationship with her own child. She said when she reported the abuse to gardaí “finally letting that broken little girl have her voice was the hardest but most liberating moment of my life”.

She said the trial process was very difficult, but that hearing the verdict “was like a flood” and made all the difficulty make sense to get justice “for that little girl”.

Philip Murphy, defending himself, spoke briefly in court to say that he could not have committed all the offences. He also denied the 2021 sexual assault convictions saying he was just “trying to steal handbags” to get out of the country to get away from media attention.

Seamus Clarke SC, defending Michael Murphy, said his client was legally a child at the time of raping the girl. He said his client is a father of two with some history of employment and is in a stable relationship. He has previous convictions for road traffic offences and drug-related offences.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help.