This article is from page 20 of the 2007-07-24 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 20 JPG
A CONVICTED sex offender from west Clare is due to be extradited to Ireland within the next week, after he fled to the UK two years ago.
Graham Haugh (21), of Drumina, Dysart, Ennis, was found guilty by a jury, in March 2004, of buggering and sexual assaulting a young boy in Kilrush, in 2001. The verdict fol- lowed a 10-day trial.
Haugh fled the country in 2005 and joined the army in the UK under a false name.
At an extradition hearing in London last week, the City of Westminster Magistrates court heard Haugh had fled to Britain because he believed his life was in danger.
“I was attacked by a few people. I was getting called “paedophile, sick bastard’, I felt a glass smashed into the back of my head and I was kicked on the ground,” he said.
He breached his probation condi- tions and went on the run to London in 2005. He argued last week that extradition would breach his human rights.
Haugh alleged his parents’ car had acid thrown on it and there were at- tempts to poison the family cat and dog. Haugh asked the court not to send him back to Ireland where he fears he could be killed.
“Every time I walked the streets I got abuse — | felt my life was in dan- ger every time I was outside the door. It felt like house arrest,” he said.
He said the vigilante campaign forced the family to move to Ennis, but the harassment followed him Wee uer
Judge Anthony Evans said the risks to Haugh’s safety did not meet the high criteria.
The judge, approving the extradi- tion, said he had received reassur- ance from the DPP that Haugh would be protected in a special wing for vulnerable prisoners.
At Dublin District Court in 2005, Judge Yvonne Murphy noted that Haugh’s life had been very difficult and dysfunctional. His role in bug- gering the victim had been to hold him down with another’s help, while a much older third man committed the actual act.