BEASTS - Noel Long

Ghost of murder victim Nora comes back to haunt sex beast Long

THIS is dangerous rapist Noel Long - the prime suspect for one of Ireland's most shocking cold-case sex crimes. Three decades ago the burly biker was charged with the death of mum-of-three Nora Sheehan. The frail and vulnerable woman was raped and strangled with her own summer dress and then dumped in a forest in 1981. But Harley-loving brute Long beat a murder rap and never went to trial because a key member of the forensic team died.

Now Nora's file is being re-opened by the Garda's Cold Case Unit in the hope that whoever killed Nora will at last face justice in a courtroom. The Sunday World understands that Long, who has convictions for serious rapes in the past, is convinced he will never be quizzed about the murder again. We caught up with him this week at his home in Passage West where he lives with a female companion. He had been surviving on a carer's allowance before his mother, Nellie, died a number of years ago.

When we called to his door it was the first time in 30 years he was asked again about the name, Nora Sheehan. But he was in no humour to talk when he was asked if he had anything to say about the horrific murder for which he was once the prime suspect.

His female partner even told our reporter: "You have some neck."

Nora Sheehan's case is just one of those covered today in our free true crime magazine, Cold Cases. It was a brutal murder but has been all but forgotten in the intervening years. Nora was 54 when she was murdered in 1981. Her body was coldly dumped in a lonely wood outside Cork city. She had been missing for almost a week and was last seen when she attended Cork's South Infirmary Hospital for treatment for a dog bite to her arm. Her husband and sons searched for her over the next few days before reporting her missing to gardai.

Gruesome

A week later two forestry workers were cleaning up at Shippool Woods when they spotted what they thought was clothing dumped on a path. When they went to investigate they made the gruesome discovery of Nora's body. Her clothes were pulled over her head and a pair of tights were still attached to one foot. She had been sexually assaulted and then strangled by her own summer dress which was tightly zipped and was found stuck around her mouth and nose.

Days later officers investigating an armed robbery at a post office in Cork stopped and arrested known criminal Long who was then living in Riverbank in Curraheen. He was brought in for questioning under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act and at the station his Opel Kadett was combed by members of the Garda Technical Bureau. While he was being quizzed officers investigating the robbery called in detectives probing Nora Sheehan's murder as Long had convictions for rape and was suspected of being behind another sex attack.

Charged

He denied ever meeting Sheehan or knowing her and said he was at home all night watching television and cleaning his diving gear on the night she went missing. A month later Long, a mechanic, was brought in for questioning again after forensic officers found that the murdered woman had indeed been in his car. At one point during the second interview, he admitted that he had given Nora a lift. He was charged with her murder on July 6, 1981 but, as he awaited trial, one of the key forensic witnesses died and a judge felt he was left with no option but to throw out the case.

Now it is understood that Nora's file has been re-opened by cold case detectives who have appealed for anyone with information on the murder to come forward. They have even placed details of the case on their website. The Sunday World understands that Long is still the chief suspect in the case and is likely to be interviewed again in the near future.

The leather-wearing former army cadet was only 20 when he committed his first violent sexual attack on an innocent woman. He was convicted of indecent assault and got a six-month suspended sentence after he dragged a 23-year-old woman with special needs into a derelict house in Crosshaven in Cork, where he raped and beat her.

Four years later years later he pulled a 16-year-old into a car while she walked her dog. He assaulted her and attempted to rape her but was caught in the act by a brave passerby who rescued her. At the time he was sentenced to 12 months in prison. A year before Nora's murder, Long was chief suspect in a savage rape and attack on a 25-year-old in Cork.

Attacked

During the course of the attack the perpetrator attempted to strangle the woman. She would later identify Long as the attacker but he was never charged in relation to the rape. Long was married at the time of Nora's murder. After Nora's murder, the pathologist who carried out the post mortem on her body, Dr RD Coakley passed away. He had formed the opinion that Nora had died from asphyxia
caused by suffocation during the rape.

However in court, at the time, it was decided that the case could not go ahead due to Dr Coakley's death. In the meantime, Long has
continued to rack up convictions for a string of common assaults, handling stolen property and careless driving. He lives at Maulbaun in Passage West.

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BEASTS - Martin Morgan

We confront ex-con brothel boss 'The Beast' as he returns from UK to account for earnings in court

BARING his brown teeth in a sarcastic smile, The Beast makes no mistake about delivering his message. The cocky brothel boss, also known as Martin Morgan, makes it clear that even after two years behind bars, he's untouchable as Ireland's king of the sex trade.

Over three decades,The Beast has been a dominant player in the dark underworld of Ireland's vice trade - built on the backs of exploited sex workers. Morgan has been one of Ireland's most successful vice bosses, making millions from seedy prostitution operations. But the former bouncer-turned pimp was in no mood to shed any light on his life in the sex-for-sale business when confronted this week.

On a rare visit back to Ireland from his UK bolthole, the Sunday World took the opportunity to catch up with the Kildare native. When our man identified himself as a reporter with the Sunday World, his immediate response was to break into a toothy grin.

Snakes

"Are you? Why would you have a shite job like that?" he asked in a high-pitched voice dripping with sarcasm.

Asked if he would be prepared to talk about his life and times in the sex trade, he suggested that he would rather not. "I would rather talk to snakes, so I would," he said, maintaining a stiff smile.

Then asked about a Sunday World interview in which his own sister branded him as a "scumbag", he said that he had read it. "I did read it, it was very good, you did a very good job," he said.

The conversation was disrupted by a young thug, who had been hanging around outside the Courts of Criminal Justice, who
approached and asked Morgan: "Do you want me to do him for you?"

Morgan laughed and said "howya buddy", before turning and going on his way, bringing an end to the bizarre encounter on the Dublin street. Morgan had less reason to laugh a few minutes earlier when a judge gave his legal team three months to account for his finances over a five-year period. The figures will be used to work out how much Morgan made from his ill-gotten gains and be forced to hand over to the State.

Morgan, who laughably claims to be a builder, spent two years inside jail and paid a €24,000 fine after being convicted of running two brothels in Dublin in 2005. He was caught red-handed in one of his own Dublin brothels where he was about to pick a hooker for sex when the cops raided.

The trial judge described Morgan's business as "a magnificent operation, highly sophisticated and highly rewarding and not a petty little business working on a shoe string."

During the trial, The Beast tried to portray himself as an ordinary builder and family man who had nothing to do with the sex industry. However, his older sister Marian, who previously spoke to the Sunday World, knows exactly what her beast brother is really like.

"Martin is just scum of the earth. He's just a dirt bag.

"What kind of scumbag would do that to other people's daughters?" she asked at her London home.

Marian Morgan said she has been horrified to learn how her younger brother became heavily involved in prostitution with acquaintances she also knew.

"He got into it after my mother died in 1990. At the time he was supplying security for the brothels," she said.

He started in the sex trade as a bag man and heavy for Tom 'Condy' McDonnell who ran brothels in Dublin. Morgan then went into business for himself with ex-RUC cop Peter McCormick before branching out on his own. The Beast's appearance back in Dublin comes as the memoirs of a former prostitute were launched this week amid a blaze of controversy.

Criticism

'Between the Sheets' has been criticised for glamourising prostitution and glossing over the seedy reality of exploited sexworkers'
lives. Scathing criticism has come from another former sex-worker who writes a blog entitled The Secret Diary of a Dublin Call Girl.
In one blistering and passionate piece, she argued against the idea that prostitutes are 'empowered' women who chose to sell
their bodies.

"What is empowering about voluntary sexual abuse? What is empowering about being a really really good actress and holding your breath ... and smiling at him when he's leaving?" she asked.

"What is empowering about having to massage an overweight middle aged man's sweaty buttocks as he weakly f***s you, dripping sweat into your face?" she wrote.

The Ruhama Agency, which helps women involved in prostitution have stayed out of the controversy. They have, however, previously
published statements of several women who suffered serious physical and emotional injury as a result of being sucked into the sex trade.

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Articles from the Archives

• WE'RE RIOT BEHIND YOU
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• 'Thinking about a woman being punched, tied up and raped in this lonely spot made my stomach flip'
• WHAT LIES BENEATH?
• NAZI PIECE OF WORK
• BABY JOY FOR 'DON'S' LITTLE GIRL
• SLASHED AND BURNED
• THE KING OF FLEES

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