TWO BROTHERS were jailed yesterday for conning an elderly widow suffering from cancer out of an estimated €444,000.
Conor Murphy (42), of Castlepark, Ballybane, Galway, who was the “brains” behind the scam, was sentenced to five years in prison at Galway Circuit Criminal Court after pleading guilty to six sample charges of inducing Mary Ellen Walsh (71), of Craughwell, Co Galway, to make 49 cheques payable to him over an 11-month period between December 2006 and October 2007, totalling €367,100.
His brother, Jimmy Murphy (46), of Ballydesmond, Co Cork, received a two-year sentence after pleading guilty to extorting a total of €28,500 from the victim on two separate dates in 2007.
Ms Walsh’s ATM card was also used on numerous occasions, even when she was in hospital and unable to use it. The additional money taken from her account brought the total loss to her to €444,500.
The brothers heard Ms Walsh had received €3.3 million from the sale of land near Oranmore and they quickly moved in on her to extract all of her savings, leaving her penniless within a year.
She had given half of the €3.3 million to her only son who lives in Cork, bought a new home for herself in Craughwell for €335,000 and put the remainder of the money in a deposit and a current bank account.
Conor Murphy convinced Ms Walsh he owned 35 acres of land in Moycullen and would sell it to her for €150,000, claiming she would make a huge profit in the transaction by selling it on to developers.
He owned no such land but he extorted the money along with €9,000 from his victim for bogus planning fees.
He quickly found out she had cancer and he told her he was suffering from cancer too to draw her into his confidence. He also discovered she was a deeply religious woman and he brought religious objects and even a faith healer into her house, claiming she could be cured of her cancer. He also claimed he was having visions of her dead brother.
Det Sgt Martin Glynn told the initial court hearing in December that Ms Walsh believed she had met two angels from heaven. He described Ms Walsh as a trusting person who was very religious but who was also very naive.
“She is in financial ruin and has only her pension to survive on now. She has no other asset except her house,” he said.
Jimmy Murphy had brought Ms Walsh to her bank in Galway on two occasions and convinced her to withdraw money to get Conor out on bail. Conor Murphy was not in custody at the time and she was told lies so that she would hand over the money. On one occasion, Jimmy Murphy left his frail victim to make her own way home from the bank – after she handed him the money – even though she was just after having a serious operation.
Imposing the sentences, Judge Raymond Groarke said this was as mean and as miserable a crime as he had ever come across. “It is mean and miserable in the way these men went about extorting money from this vulnerable elderly lady, widowed for 30 years and living alone, who was carefully selected by them because she had come into money.”
The judge noted Ms Walsh was undergoing surgery for cancer at the time the brothers conned their way into her confidence.
“She thought she had met two angels from heaven. They were two angels all right but they certainly weren’t from heaven. She is now left almost destitute,” he said.
The judge said Ms Walsh now felt foolish and belittled by what the brothers had done to her and she was also living in fear of being shot by them or by someone else as Conor Murphy had told her he had friends in the IRA.
This was another means by which he threatened and intimidated the woman to extort money from her.
Judge Groarke also noted that while Conor Murphy claimed he had gambled the money away, there was no evidence before the court to support this.
The judge concluded he had used the victim’s money to support a lifestyle he could not have otherwise afforded.
The judge accepted Jimmy Murphy had been duped by his brother into going along with his younger brother in the scam and had not benefited to the same degree.