Canterbury Man Arrested on Sex Offender Registration Charges

A local man is facing two sex offender registration charges after failing to tell Concord Police that he left his Loudon Road apartment and was “couch hopping” around the region.

Steven W. Murphy, 26, of Canterbury, was arrested at 7:24 p.m. on Aug. 20, and charged with two counts of change of registration information; duty to inform, on sex offender registration forms, one of them a felony.

According to arrest and court documents, a detective initiated a duty to inform investigation on Murphy on July 22. According to the detective, Murphy had been convicted in Merrimack Superior Court on March 17, 2011, of two felonious sexual assault convictions (on a victim 13 or older and under 16, where the age difference was more than four years, according to records online). The officer was familiar with Murphy since he arrested him in September 2012 on a similar charge.

The detective put Murphy’s name into an address verification system in late June and it came up as an apartment on Loudon Road. Officers attempted to confirm his address twice but they were unable to make contact with him.

The detective kept Murphy on the address verification list for the next three weekends but officers were unable to confirm his address. On the third weekend, an officer noted that Murphy reportedly no longer lived at the address.

The detective re-checked the registration forms and noted that Murphy signed them in November 2012 and April 2013, agreeing to report to police within five business days if he changed his residence.

On July 16, the detective left a message with Murphy’s mother, and later, Murphy called the detective back.

On July 22, the detective spoke to Murphy who allegedly stated that he hadn’t lived on Loudon Road since the end of May and had been “couch hopping.” He reportedly said he knew he had to report at the end of July.

Murphy allegedly told the officer he had been staying in Franklin in June and July, and a police detective there reportedly confirmed that he had a contact with Murphy on June 29, at a domestic disturbance, and Murphy allegedly said he lived on Loudon Road.

When asked why he didn’t report to police that he had changed his address, Murphy allegedly told the officer he didn’t think he needed to, since he wasn’t staying in any specific place for any length of time. He reportedly said he was now living in Canterbury and was planning on coming in to register at the end of July.

The detective explained to Murphy that the point of having a sex offender registration was to be able to know where offenders were located in the community. Murphy agreed to come into the station for an interview and to file a new registration form.

A few days later, Murphy told police he would be in later that week but never did, according to the detective.

On Aug. 12, the detective was contacted by the New Hampshire State Police Sex Offender Registry and informed that Murphy had registered with the Canterbury Police on Aug. 1. The Registry contacted Concord Police because they never received a form from police. The detective checked the records and noted that Murphy allegedly hadn’t registered and an arrest warrant was issued.

A week later, Murphy was arrested in Manchester. He was held on $15,000 cash bail and arraigned on Aug. 21.