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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
National
Paul Healy

One of Ireland's most notorious rapists Simon McGinley walks free from prison

One of Ireland’s most notorious rapists has just walked free from prison.

Evil sex beast Simon McGinley was freed from Dublin’s Arbour Hill Prison this morning, having served 13 years of a 21 year sentence for the horrific rape of an 85-year-old woman in her Co Monaghan home in 2008.

The notorious sex offender, who will now have to notify authorities of his new address, was seen walking out of the front gates of Arbour Hill and getting into a taxi shortly after 11am this morning.

The thug covered up his face and wore a hood over his head as photographers snapped him running to the vehicle.

McGinley, 48, was freed this morning due to time served and standard remission of 25 per cent on his 21 year sentence, which had later been reduced on appeal to 19 years imprisonment plus two years suspended.

The infamous rapist was previously sentenced to 12 years in 1998 after pleading guilty to raping a 13-year-old girl in August 1997 - in a well documented court case known as the ‘C Case.’

The young girl at the centre of the that High Court case was involved in a legal battle over whether she was allowed to travel to the UK to have an abortion.

Dangerous rapist McGinley has previously been compared to infamous beast Larry Murphy, and is considered a highly volatile sexual predator.

During his trial in 2009, Mr Justice Birmingham said he could find no mitigating circumstances in the case.

“Rape is always a serious offence but within the spectrum of rapes this, in my view, is at the top of the upper end. This case is just about as bad as it gets,” he said.

He believed McGinley’s alcoholism was at the centre of his offending. Unless his drinking was addressed, “everyone from very young girls to very old ladies will be at risk”.

The court had heard that McGinley had previously attended a sex offenders’ programme in jail.

Justice Birmingham added: “It is hard to come to terms with the fact that the same person could be capable of raping a 13-year-old girl and then rape an 86-year-old woman.”

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