Sex fiend who left victim with machete-like injuries to vagina says he was ‘framed’

Claiming to be concerned about the vulnerable woman he attacked — leaving her with machete-like injuries to her vagina — he says he was “framed.”

Despite losing an Appeals Courts case for the 2013 conviction, for which he got a 13-year prison sentence, Morrissey still claims he is the victim of a “smear campaign that’s been going on for years.”

This week, he wrote to the Sunday World peddling his wild claims, despite the overwhelming evidence that led to his conviction for the attack at his home in Callan, Co Kilkenny.

He wrote similar letters during the time he was incarcerated and made the same claims when approached by the Sunday World after his release in October 2021.

In his latest letter, he refers to his trial as a “sham” and claims he was “shafted” at the Court of Appeal and that “3 people are dead because of I been framed”.

Morrissey likened his case to that of the Kerry Babies scandal in which it took the State “over 30 years to apologise” and the Sallins train robbery.

The wealthy 74-year-old, who owns a number of properties in Ireland and the UK, said in one letter: “I committed no crime and I spent all most [sic] ten years locked in a cage illegally.”

In 2013, he was jailed for 13 years for the aggravated sexual assault of a young woman, who was not named in court.

Two years before that attack, Morrissey had hit the headlines following the death of his then partner, Lorraine White, in 2008.

Ms White died due to horrific internal injuries caused by a 10-inch copper pipe which had been inserted in her. Morrissey was quizzed in connection with her death but never faced any charges.

Gardaí suspected Morrissey, who had previously been sentenced to five years in prison in the UK in 1999 after he used his fists and other objects to indecently assault a woman, of being involved in her death.

A file was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions following the death of Ms White, but no charges were brought.

At the time, Morrissey was already a convicted killer.

In 1977, he drove over his neighbour, Francis McEnery, who was out walking with his four-year-old son Marcus in Mullinahone, Co. Tipperary.

He received a four-year sentence for the killings.

When approached by the Sunday World following his release from the Midlands Prison in October 2021, he admitted his manslaughter conviction in 1977 but tried to play down his sexual assault conviction in the UK.

“I’ll miss on that one because you can’t show me anything to prove anything I was ever in a prison in England,” he said.

Dismissing an appeal against the severity of Morrissey’s sentence in July 2018, Mr Justice John Edwards said the Court of Appeal has had to deal with “shocking cases”.

He said that on each occasion the court “hopes it has seen the nadir of depravity”.

The judge said in this case the depravity plunged to “new depths”.

Morrissey also lost an appeal against his conviction in May 2018.