Double rapist Simon McGinley released from prison today, will be monitored by gardaí

Sunday World

2 days ago

A garda alert is in place for McGinley (51), who is expected to live at an address in Dundalk, Co Louth
Rapist Simon McGinley walked out of the Midlands Prison a free man today after serving 23 months for breaching the conditions of the Sex Offenders Act.
A garda alert is in place for McGinley (51), who is expected to live at an address in Dundalk, Co Louth.
Sources say McGinley was signed out of the prison at approximately 10.15am on Wednesday morning.
A man, understood to be McGinley, walked from the prison a couple of minutes afterwards, wearing a shirt, a dark-coloured tracksuit bottoms, a wide-brimmed hat and a facemask.
He was carrying a single bag.
The man took a left turn and walked towards Portlaoise town.
Sources said McGinley served every day of the two-and-a-half-year sentence imposed on him for breaching the act, minus remission. The term also involved the reactivation of a suspended portion of a sentence he received for a previous rape.
'Like all prisoners, he is entitled to standard remission of one-quarter of his sentence, and that is what happened here,' a source said.
'He caused very little problems in terms of disciplinary issues while being housed on the C Wing of the Midlands Prison, which is reserved for sex offenders.'
McGinley, who has strong links to north Co Dublin, has been in the prison since August 2023 after the sentences were imposed on him by Dundalk Circuit Criminal Court.
He will be subject to monitoring by gardaí, who classify him as 'a very dangerous individual'.
McGinley was originally released from prison in September, 2022, after serving a lengthy sentence for the rape of a pensioner.
The woman had been unfit to give evidence during the trial due to her worsening dementia, but a statement she gave at a previous district court hearing in October 2008 was read to the jury.
A drunken McGinley raped the ­woman repeatedly during the night and put his hand over her mouth at one point when she cried out.
His previous rape, of a 13-year-old girl, sparked the 'C Case' legal battle over whether she was allowed to travel to the UK for an abortion.
McGinley was freed from Arbour Hill Prison in September 2022, after finishing a 21-year sentence imposed in 2009 for the sexual attack on the 85-year-old woman in Co Monaghan.
At that time, a nationwide alert was issued to gardaí across the country informing them of his release. McGinley was told at his last trial that he would be under post-release supervision for 12 years but he breached these conditions after less than a year as a free man.
Simon McGinley
When passing sentence in 2009, Justice George Birmingham said the case was one of the worst he had heard, considering the age and frailty of the victim. Then aged 35, McGinley, who had denied the charges, was found guilty of raping the elderly woman on June 16, 2008, after forcing his way into her home.
The woman known as 'Miss C' was also in court for McGinley's 2009 sentence hearing, at which the daughter of the elderly woman outlined the devastating impact the sex attack had on her mother.
In 2009 'Miss C' spoke to RTÉ radio about the attack by McGinley that left her pregnant.
She was raped as a 13-year-old in 1997 when she babysat for McGinley's children and he insisted on dropping her home afterwards.
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In January last year, a separate charge against McGinley of breaching the conditions of the Sex Offenders Act was struck out after it was disclosed that the alleged injured party – an elderly woman – in the case did not want to attend court.
McGinley was once a person of interest in the case of JoJo Dullard, who went missing in November 1995, but has since been ruled out of the murder probe.
Meanwhile, gardaí in Co Louth have also been alerted about another sex offender who is understood to have travelled home to Drogheda after serving a sentence for serious sexual offences in the UK.
The 23-year-old is currently homeless and was not given permission by UK authorities to return to Ireland as he was meant to be under the supervision of probation officers there until next year.
Gardaí have been warned that this sex offender 'expresses racist' views, has a huge dislike of authority and can behave in an extremely aggressive manner.