A SERIAL rapist concealed previous criminal convictions from the court which he hoped would today restrain newspapers from publishing his photograph and whereabouts, the High Court was told yesterday.
Barrister Eoin McCullough SC, for several papers, told the court that Michael Murray had not told the court of a previous conviction and imprisonment for rape in the UK as well as indecent exposure in front of children, larceny and intent to do bodily harm.
Paul O’Higgins SC, for Mr Murray, who was jailed in 1996 for the rape of four women in less than a week, told the High Court that Mr Murray was the victim of “an orgy of publicity” since his release from prison last year.
Mr Murray has asked Ms Justice Mary Irvine for a permanent injunction restraining the Star, the Star on Sunday, the Sun, Evening Heraldand the News of the Worldfrom publishing his address or photographs of him.
He claims he must move from one address to another and is unable to hold down a job because of the publicity he alleges is aided by gardaí passing his new addresses to the newspapers.
Mr Murray (49), from Dublin’s south inner city, raped four women and sexually assaulted two others over a six-day period in 1995. Two of his victims said at his trial they believed he was going to strangle them. He was jailed in 1996 for 18 years and served 13.
The court heard that since his release in July last year, the Starand Star on Sundayhad carried stories headlined: "Serial Sex Beast is Free to Roam the Streets;" "Monster in Our Midst"; "Serial Rape Beast Goes Underground" and "Sex Attack Monster has Job in Hospital".
The Evening Heraldhad published a large front-page picture under the headline: "A Danger to Women". It had followed up with: "Public must know where he lives"; "Predator" and "Sex Beast now Lives in Flat Close to School".
The Sunand the News of the Worldhad headlined stories about his living beside a girls school. Both papers had asked readers to contact their reporters if they had seen "this beast".
Mr O’Higgins said Mr Murray was now living in B&Bs and hotel rooms until his identity was discovered through publicity and then moved on. He had to give up a job as gardener in St Mary’s Hospital, Phoenix Park, Dublin.
On one occasion, a photographer and reporter had turned up at his address with two gardaí who seemed to be there simply to get him open the door to be photographed, which he was.
Mr Murray claimed in an affidavit that because of the publicity and the effect it had on his retaining a permanent address, he had been finding it difficult to comply with his reporting obligations under the Sex Offenders Act and with the Probation Service.
Mr McCullough told Judge Irvine there was agreement between both legal teams that the issue for the court to decide was the balancing of Mr Murray’s rights of privacy as against the right of the media to freedom of speech.
The court, crucially, had to take into account the public interest. There was undoubtedly a right of the public to be made aware of the identity and whereabouts of any dangerous person.
He said the application before the court was a classic case where an interlocutory injunction should be refused if there was even the smallest chance that the plaintiff, a proven recidivist offender, might reoffend between now and the date of the full trial of his case.
“There is no denying the fact that the plaintiff is a very dangerous person. In 1989 he was convicted and imprisoned for rape in the UK and very shortly after his return to Ireland, he was guilty of acts of indecent exposure in front of young children,” Mr McCullough said. He had then carried out the four rapes and two sexual assaults associated with extreme violence, all of which had taken place at a time when he was awaiting a decision of the Director of Public Prosecutions relating to the indecent exposures.
The hearing continues.