Child sex abuser Tom Humphries avoids sanction for ‘turnkey’ jibe
CHILD sex offender Tom Humphries will not face action for verbally abusing a prison officer, it has emerged.
Journalist Humphries (55) insulted the Midlands Prison officer when a request that he made for special treatment was refused.
A source said: “Humphries can be a real smart-a**e at times and he called the officer an ‘uneducated turnkey’.”
Turnkey is a derogatory term for a prison warder used in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The officer was not fazed at all, according to the source, and put Humphries in his place.
“I’d rather be an uneducated turnkey than an educated paedophile,” he told him, before again refusing the request and suggesting he behave himself.
Former ‘Irish Times’ sports writer Humphries could have faced disciplinary action, but he was not sanctioned over it.
Humphries spends most of his time in jail attending classes, including Spanish lessons which he is said to be “very enthusiastic” about.
It is understood that he is planning to leave the country once he has completed his 30-month prison sentence for grooming and sexually abusing a teenage girl.
Humphries shared a cell with baby-killer John Tighe previously.
He was moved in with him after he “lost the plot” when a third inmate was placed in his cell in the Co Laois prison.
In May, it emerged that Humphries has rejected the offer of psychological therapy in prison.
He was asked by prison bosses if he was willing to take part in a programme designed to help amend the issues that led to his crimes – but he said no immediately.
If he had taken up the offer, he would have been transferred to Arbour Hill Prison, on the northside of Dublin, where the majority of inmates are also sex offenders.
Humphries exchanged at least 16,000 texts with his under-age female victim over a three-month period.
He met up with her on five occasions, during which sexual acts took place.
Humphries, from Sutton, north Dublin, admitted two counts of defilement of a child and four counts of inviting a child to participate in a sexually explicit, obscene or indecent act. The charges were sample counts.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard Humphries made contact with the teenager through his volunteer work with junior GAA teams.
Judge Karen O’Connor said that he had been aware of “certain vulnerabilities” she had at the time.