By Conor Sharkey

THE niece of the Castlederg pensioner raped by Eamon Foley has said she is "deeply disturbed" to learn he has apparently set up a Bebo site.

Foley was released in 2007, after serving an eight year sentence for the rape of 91-year-old Mary-Anne McLaughlin at her mobile home on the outskirts of Castlederg. He was jailed in 1999 for 16 years but released under the government's now defunct 50 per cent remission programme.

Following his release, Foley set up home in Gortin but was forced out following a high-profile campaign by local residents. He is then understood to have moved back to his native Castlederg but has remained under the radar for over a year.

That is until now.

Earlier this week, the Chronicle received a tip off that Foley was featured on a page on the social networking site Bebo, under the profile name 'EamonF65'.

Because of the page's status as private, it is impossible to verify who set up the page.

However an accompanying photograph and short profile do relate to the 53-year-old.

On the site Foley, as he has always done, again protests to be innocent of any crime and alleges a PSNI conspiracy against him.

It reads, "My name is Eamon Foley and I served 8 years of a 16 year sentence for the rape of a pensioner I did not commit. The whole system is f***ed. The crooked b****rds set me up because I was a Republican....."

Access to information stops there but is enough to warrant serious concerns from Mary-Anne McLaughlin's niece Jean McCafferty.

She said that if it was confirmed that Foley has a Bebo page, it needed to be investigated by sex offender monitoring body MASRAM.

"If he has set this Bebo site up, then I find it very disturbing. I would like to know if under the terms of early release, is he entitled to do this?

'It's definitely worrying but I'm not sure he is allowed and I think that needs to be checked out," Ms McCafferty said.

At the time of his release, Foley was one of only a handful of sex offenders here placed in the most serious 'Category Three' bracket. And his repeated denials of his heinous crime leads Jean McCafferty to believe he still poses a risk to the public.

"From the point of view that he is still in complete denial, I do believe he is a threat. Everyone knows he is guilty and he was convicted on DNA evidence but he still denies it. I think it's sad because he is denying himself the opportunity to move forward.

"He is stuck in this warp of denial and he even feels he has to deny his guilt by announcing it on a Bebo site.

"I don't feel sorry for him but I think it's regretful that he continues to feel this way. I've no sorrow in my heart for him at all, but it is regretful," she added.

Numerous attempts were made to contact MASRAM by this newspaper, however no one was available at the time of going to press.