Phyllis Murphy killer accused of child sex abuse
RITA O'REILLY
Three young girls made statements to gardai alleging that the ex-soldier had assaulted them
JOHN CRERAR, the former army sergeant who was jailed for life last week, was a serial predator whose alleged abuse of two children led to his entrapment for the murder of Phyllis Murphy over two decades later, the Sunday Independent can reveal.
As a soldier in his 20s, Crerar allegedly seriously sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl, continued to abuse her when she was a teenager, and only stopped abusing her two years before he raped and murdered Phyllis Murphy.
He was never charged with those crimes, but the alleged victims said this weekend that they have not withdrawn the allegations. The abuse allegations emerged when local sergeant Kevin Derrane was placed in charge of questionnaires for Kildare town during the investigation into the disappearance of Phyllis Murphy in Christmas-New Year of 1979-80. It is believed Derrane heard the abuse allegations on a doorstep when he was doing house-to-house inquiries.
When he questioned Crerar on January 7, 1980, Derrane wrote a note at the top of the questionnaire: "Would recommend that his story be checked". The sergeant, who is long retired, now says he cannot remember why he wrote it, but he said, "I did not do it lightly."
Three statements containing allegations of abuse and sexual assault were taken by gardai as a direct result of Derrane's alert. They were taken in the two days before January 16, 1980, when Crerar was asked to make a detailed statement accounting for his movements on December 22 1979, the night Phyllis Murphy disappeared.
Crerar was also asked to give a blood sample, which was taken on March 6, 1980. However, at the time, an alibi provided by his former army colleague and co-worker, Paddy Bolger, ensured he escaped further investigation for the Murphy murder. It was not until 1997 that the efforts of a ballistics officer, Detective Inspector Brendan McArdle, led to the breakthrough that saw DNA evidence securing Crerar's conviction. DNA in his blood samples matched DNA in semen found in Phyllis Murphy's body. Paddy Bolger also retracted his alibi.
In 1980, Crerar was separately questioned about the abuse allegations, but no charges were brought. The local garda superintendent in Kildare, Pat Flynn, now deceased, recorded that some members of the victims' families had told him they did not want to pursue the matter "at present" because of the failing health of a party involved.
At the time of making the statements to gardai, the first woman was a minor, but the second was over 18. The second woman has confirmed that she never withdrew the allegation. This weekend, gardai said it was still open to the alleged victims believed to number more than three to renew the allegations.
In 1999, Crerar was questioned about them when he was arrested for Phyllis Murphy's murder. He told gardai they were "all lies" and claimed the father of a victim had "sorted that out with me".
He claimed that the 10-year-old alleged victim was "a born liar". He claimed that when she was a teenager, he caught her "thieving" and that she had "come on" to him to "get out of it".
"There may have been some kissing and feeling going on, but that was because she came onto me," he said.
But the 1980 statements of the alleged victims tell a very different story. In one statement, a woman alleges when she was a 10-year-old schoolgirl, Crerar enticed her into a caravan where he then lived, claiming his wife wanted to see her. He locked the door, took off her pants and placed newspaper under her body. He then removed his trousers and proceeded to seriously sexually assault her.
The girl detailed further abuse when she was 15 years old. She said Crerar used to give her a few pounds to keep quiet and "would get a bit mad when I wouldn't let him go the whole way". At the time, she did not know what "the whole way" meant, she said. "I never consented, but I was afraid of him," she said.
The statement of another alleged victim told how Crerar allegedly tried to sexually assault her in her own home. She picked up a knife and told him that if he didn't stop, she would "stick the knife in him".
A third woman alleged that when she was 11, Crerar used to molest her. "I didn't know what he was trying to do, but I knew I was frightened of him," she said. She alleged that one night when she was babysitting in Crerar's house in Woodside Park, she awoke to find him "touching my body all over".
"I told him to go away or I would scream and wake [his wife]," she said.
