A "vulnerable" teenage boy has been sentenced to eight years' detention for the attempted murder of a Defence Forces priest, whom he repeatedly stabbed after he was exposed to radical Islamist ideas online.
The now 17-year-old, who cannot be identified due to his age, wanted to kill a member of the Irish Defence Forces when he came upon army chaplain Father Paul Murphy (52) at Dún Uí Mhaoilíosa, Renmore Barracks in Galway on August 15, 2024.
Delivering sentence this afternoon, Mr Justice Paul McDermott at the Central Criminal Court said the internet is a dangerous place for impressionable teenagers who become "easy prey" to malign groups spreading their "poison". Access to extreme ideas and often graphic and violent sexual content poses a real childcare issue, he said.
Mr Justice McDermott criticised those who advocate for light regulation, saying they ignore the damage done to children.
The defendant in this case is a teenager with no previous convictions who had never before come to the attention of gardaí, he said. His "distorted thinking" about Islam did not come from his local community but from sources online, in particular the ISIS terror group.
Individuals who contacted the defendant developed in him a "warped view" of Irish activity in Mali and prompted him to seek revenge against any member of the Defence Forces. He had been exposed to media footage of the "most grotesque kind", the judge noted.
Mr Justice McDermott said the defendant was immature and has an obsessive personality. Since the offence, he has been diagnosed with autism. He developed an interest in Islam at an early age, which became an obsession. His "extremely unhealthy use of the internet" led him to accept radicalised and violent ideological and religious views.
On the day of the attack, he lay in wait for any member of the Defence Forces, the judge said, and did not target Father Murphy due to his religious role. When the priest pulled up in his car with his window lowered two-thirds of the way, he was "immediately and savagely attacked" by the defendant with a large knife.
The attack lasted about 90 seconds, the judge said, noting that the boy's persistence is a "disturbing element" of the crime. He continued the attack even after a soldier fired warning shots, and it was only the direct intervention of a soldier that brought the attack to an end.
Fr Murphy suffered physical and mental trauma, including permanent scars and wounds to his arm that required surgery.
Mr Justice McDermott said an adult who committed the same crime would face 20 to 25 years in prison. He set a headline sentence of 20 years, but taking into account the defendant's age, immaturity, early guilty plea and genuine remorse, he reduced that to ten years with the final two years suspended for three years.
The teenager entered a bond to keep the peace and to engage with any deradicalisation process or program directed by the probation services.
At the teenager's sentencing hearing earlier this month, Fr Murphy said: "My only desire is that the young man before you would learn to see the error of his ways and, when the time comes, return to society to make a positive contribution to the world as a wholesome, happy, and loving person".
Fr Murphy said if it wasn't him that night it would have been someone else and he was convinced, "without a shadow of a doubt", that he was "the right person, in the right place, at the right time". He told the court: "Out of all the members of our Defence Forces, I was best placed to take the knife."
Turning to the defendant in the dock as he read his statement, Fr Murphy said that he was "in the business of forgiveness" and offered "the young man standing accused before me, the forgiveness that will hopefully help you to become a better person. I believe you are 17 now so you will hopefully have another 80 years of living on this earth".
"My hope and prayer is that you will use whatever resources are put at your disposal, in prison or beyond, to learn a better way of living and that you will use your energy and your talents to make our world a better place for all people to live. Life is for living and for loving, and, I promise you, your life will find its ultimate joy when you live honourably and love generously," continued the priest.
At this point, the teenage boy, who had his parents sitting near him, interrupted Fr Murphy and said aloud: "I'm sorry".
The boy, who was 16 years old at the time of the attack, had pleaded guilty last February to the attempted murder of Fr Murphy.
Outside Court, Father Murphy told reporters: "I think that it’s very easy to fight hatred with hatred and the world just becomes entrenched in hatred and that’s the way the world is at the moment.
"St John says that God is love and if we believe God to be love, then we know that love is stronger than hate. So to respond to hate with love will hopefully create a different world for us all to live in. This young boy is going to prison for a few years, my only hope and prayer is that he will return to society better able to manage his own life and also to make a more positive contribution to society."
The victim of the attack Fr Paul Murphy spoke to reporters outside court.
