Tom Humphries | |
|---|---|
| Born | London, United Kingdom |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Education | St. Joseph's Secondary C.B.S., Fairview University College Dublin |
| Occupation | Former sports journalist |
Tom Humphries is a formersports journalist and columnist who wrote forThe Irish Times while volunteering at a North DublinGaelic games club. His career as a leading sportswriter was ended after his history of child sexual abuse emerged in 2011. In 2017, he pleaded guilty to a number of child sex offences and received a2+1⁄2 year imprisonment sentence.[1][2] Maeve Sheehan, writing in theSunday Independent, noted as his prison sentence concluded in 2019: "As one of the off sex offenders who was famous before he went to prison, his crimes ensure his name will stay on the public radar for years to come".[3]
Humphries was born in London[4] and grew up in Foxfield,Raheny, in Dublin. He was educated at St Joseph's Christian Brothers School inFairview. He has aBachelor of Commerce degree and aHigher Diploma in Education fromUniversity College Dublin (UCD). He ran unsuccessfully for the office of President of theUCD Student Union in 1986; Ulick Stafford defeated him.
Humphries began writing columns forThe Irish Times during the early-1990s.[3] His writings contained references to "the cunning of paedophiles" and of sport as "a fine feeding ground for those few sick minds who prey on kids".[3]
He was for many years a regular among children at a North DublinGaelic games club.[3]
Besides his regular sports reporting and feature articles, Humphries wrote a Monday column inThe Irish Times called "Locker Room".
A collection of his writings forThe Irish Times andSports Illustrated was published in 2004 asBooked! and was nominated for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. The book's royalties went toAmnesty International.
Humphries received international attention in May 2002, for his interview with Irish footballerRoy Keane on the island ofSaipan, while thenational football team were preparing to take part in the2002 FIFA World Cup. Originally, Humphries planned to write an article based on the interview,[citation needed] but Keane's openly critical remarks about preparations for the World Cup and the attitudes of the team management, the players, and theFootball Association of Ireland, led to the interview appearing as a verbatim transcript on the front page ofThe Irish Times (an almost unheard of action)[citation needed] and continuing inside the newspaper. Theresulting furore caused Keane to resign from the squad before the tournament started, and he was also dismissed by the team manager,Mick McCarthy.
Humphries was theghost writer of Irish football playerNiall Quinn's autobiography,Niall Quinn – The Autobiography, published in 2002. It won the Best Autobiography category in the inauguralBritish Sports Book Awards,[5] and was nominated for aWilliam Hill Sports Book of the Year award.[citation needed] The book is not structured chronologically, but rather in the context of Quinn's career swansong, the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.
Humphries volunteered at a North DublinGaelic games club.[3]
His first book,Green Fields: Gaelic Sport in Ireland, analysed the importance of theGaelic Athletic Association in Ireland, a recurring theme of his work.
His bookDublin V Kerry gave an account of historic clashes between the two dominant teams inGaelic football of the mid- to late-1970s.
Humphries co-wroteCome What May, the autobiography of the openly gayhurlerDonal Óg Cusack. It won theWilliam Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year. Tony Kenny, PR Manager for William Hill, said at the time: "Donal Og's book is an excellently told story of ... someone who wasn't afraid to put themselves forward as a role model to many in sport and life not just in Ireland but across the world."[6]
In 2011, Humphries's child sex abuse came to light when his daughter discovered messages of a sexual nature on an old mobile phone of Humphries; the messages were exchanged between Humphries and a 14-year-old girl with an eating disorder who played at the North DublinGaelic games club with which Humphries volunteered.[3] This led to a police investigation that eventually revealed that Humphries had sent the girl thousands of sexually-explicit texts before going on to meet her for sexual acts.[7] Humphries subsequently spent a year in a psychiatric facility, before being arrested in September 2012.[8] He was charged in March 2014.[8] He had not written forThe Irish Times since 2011, but was formally suspended after being charged.[8]
In March 2017, Humphries pleaded guilty to two counts of defilement of a child and four counts of inviting a child to participate in a sexually explicit, obscene or indecent act.[1]The Irish Times terminated his employment after his guilty plea.[8] Reporting restrictions on the case had been in place until June 2017; they were lifted after three charges involving another girl were dropped.[9] JudgeKaren O'Connor sentenced Humphries to2+1⁄2 years in jail on 24 October 2017. When sentencing, she took into account Humphries's guilty plea and the two character references for the defence from the journalistDavid Walsh and the hurlerDonal Óg Cusack. The chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre was surprised and disappointed about the sentence's leniency.[7]
Humphries began serving his sentence at theMidlands Prison inPortlaoise.[10]
Humphries was offered therapy but declined, having earlier claimed he was remorseful for his crimes while in court.[3] In prison, he shared a landing with Graham Dwyer, whomurdered Elaine O'Hara, and shared his cell withJohn Tighe, who killed his baby son.[3] While serving his sentence he called a prison officer an "uneducatedturnkey". The officer was reported by theIrish Independent at the time to have responded: "I would rather be an uneducated turnkey than an educated paedophile".[3] He studied Spanish while in jail, believed to be an indicator of his intentions upon completion of his sentence; Humphries spent time in Spain before his trial.[3]
Humphries was released from prison on 16 August 2019, having served 19 months.[11][12]