The convicted rapist linked with the disappearance of American student Annie McCarrick has been accused of another murder.

A top policeman has claimed that Larry Murphy could have killed missing Kildare woman Deirdre Jacob.

McCarrick hasn’t been seen since she left a Wicklow pub almost 20 years ago.

Police believe she was murdered and Murphy, currently living in Europe, has been questioned about her disappearance.

Now retired Chief Superintendent Sean Feely has said that Murphy could be responsible for the death in 1998 of teenager Jacob.

Like McCarrick, Jacob has been missing for years and is believed to be dead.

She vanished from outside her home in Newbridge, Co Kildare, in 1998.

Her disappearance made headlines again last week when police divers searched parts of Blessington Lake in Wicklow.

The search was ordered after a former prison inmate claimed Murphy had confessed to killing student Deirdre, 18, and dumping her body in a lake.

Feely told the

Irish Sun newspaper

: “A lot of things point towards Larry Murphy.

“But it’s awful dangerous to pinpoint him — we’ve been so wrong so often.

“He worked for her grandmother, so it’s possible.”

The paper reports that Murphy’s prison pal claimed the suspected serial killer told him he had followed Deirdre to her parent’s home in Newbridge.

Feely said the convicted criminal’s information should not be dismissed.

He added: “The thing about prisoners is that often times, they do have an inside line.”

Deirdre’s dad Michael said: “We’ve nothing to say on this, searches are ongoing all the time, they search different places at different times.”