Apologies for not blogging for so long. I have been vegging out since before Christmas (well, except for the dinners, visitors, children, blah blah and all the rest of it). Here's to 2010. She is a welcome change to last year. A new year. A new decade. She holds a lot of promise. Lets hope she delivers!
I was shocked and saddened to hear, over Christmas, about Brian Lenihans' illness. I hope for him and his families sake that things are not as bad as has been made out in the media in the last week. The Brian show is the only show in town at the moment and the sooner it can be rolled out and we see if its going to work or not, the better!
Today I read with horror, a piece in the Sunday Tribune about the release next summer of one Larry Murphy who, they termed 'Ireland's only suspected serial killer' - a guy who was found by two hunters attempting to suffocate a woman in the Wicklow Mountains, after repeatedly raping her - who is also suspected of the deaths of at least 3 other women including Jojo Dullard.
Mr Murphy was sentenced in 2000 to 15 years in jail for that crime. Now the first question that begs is, why is he being released having served only 10 years?
Secondly, the Gardaí believe that this guy is such a threat to women that they (according to the Trib) have 'decided to post between 24 and 32 undercover officers' to follow him for an indefinite period'. I find this kind of thing very difficult to understand. Not the Garda decision to watch him like a hawk, but our states refusal that a life sentence should be just that - a life sentence. Why should this guy get his freedom again? And why should the Gardaí have to allocate these kind of resources to him? And why should women in County Carlow - where he intends to reside - or beyond that have to live with this man in their community?
I have said it before and I say it again that when it comes to crimes like the one this man was convicted of, or indeed paedophiles I have no compunction in saying that I believe they should be locked up - at the very least - for life.
We know enough to know that these kind of crimes are perpetrated by those with a very high risk of re-offending. Why do we impose those risks on our sisters, daughters, children? Surely they have more rights than criminals? But alas, it seems they do not.
Perhaps in 2010 we can actually grow up in this country and start concentrating on things that are important. Get our house in order. I'm certainly not a 'lock em and leave em' advocate, in the main. But for these types of crimes, I certainly am. How many women/children/people have been hurt, raped or abused or even murdered by people with a track record? By people who are on bail? By people who have criminal convictions of a similar nature? And why should we have to have people like Larry Murphy in our midst?
He's not co-operating with Gardaí by the way, on those other crimes of which he is suspected. So. Does he get away with them then? Either way, the crime for which he was tried and convicted deserved a life sentence. He got 15 years. Why is he at least, not serving that?
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