A “most dangerous sexual predator” has been jailed for 15 years for the repeated rape and sexual abuse of his half-brother and two girls 30 years ago.
Philip Murphy (45) engaged in a “protracted campaign of sexual abuse” against his half-brother, Thomas Ryan, and two girls he babysat on dates between 1994 and 1998, Mr Justice Paul Burns said.
Mr Ryan waived his anonymity so Murphy could be named.
Philip Murphy’s brother, Michael Murphy (48), was jailed for four years for raping one of the girls, who were sisters.
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Philip Murphy, of no fixed abode, was convicted after a Central Criminal Court trial on 15 counts of rape and sexual assault of the three victims at locations including the Murphy family home in Clondalkin, Co Dublin.
Murphy, who represented himself at trial, continues to deny the offences.
In relation to the two girls Murphy abused, the court heard he threatened the older one 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 children.
On one occasion when the older girl got a kitchen knife to protect herself from being raped, Philip Murphy grabbed her younger sister and started abusing her before the older girl surrendered to him and was taken upstairs and raped by him, the court heard.
“Despite her compliance, Murphy went on to abuse the younger sister anyway,” Mr Justice Burns said at the sentencing hearing on Monday.
The judge said had Murphy been an adult at the time of the offending then 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, saying his culpability grew as he aged.
Murphy, who has previous convictions, 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 Murphy “a most dangerous sexual predator” and “an ongoing danger to society”.
He handed down a sentence of 15 years and ordered it run from Monday. He also ordered Murphy to remain under post-release supervision for 10 years after his release from custody.
Murphy, defending himself, spoke briefly in court and said he could not have committed all the offences.
He also took issue with his sentence starting from Monday, but Mr Justice Burns said he had given serious consideration as to whether it should indeed start after the term Murphy was 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 Burns sentenced Michael Murphy to four years for a single count of raping one of the girls abused by Philip Murphy.
The jury convicted Michael Murphy, of Cushlawn Dale, Tallaght, Dublin 24, of rape on an unknown date in 1993 or 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. She was one of the two girls abused by Philip Murphy.
Mr Justice Burns said the offending by Michael Murphy was serious and must have contributed to the serious difficulties experienced by the complainant.
He noted Michael Murphy had minor convictions and a history of drug abuse.
The judge handed him a five-year sentence, but suspended the final year on a number of convictions.
Séamus Clarke SC, defending Michael Murphy, said his client was legally a child at the time of raping the girl.
He said his client was a father of two with some history of employment and was in a stable relationship. He had previous convictions for road traffic offences and drug-related offences.
