Gardaí investigate rape of student in Dublin city laneway

‘Extremely upset and shock’

Area is covered by CCTV

THE alleged rape of a young German student in Dublin city centre in the early hours of Sunday morning is being investigated by gardaí

The young woman was dragged down a laneway off Winetavern Street, on the southside of the city, at around 3.30am on Sunday.

Gardaí believe she met her alleged attacker less than five minutes earlier.

The student, understood to be in her early 20s, has since returned to Germany and is currently being comforted by her family.

She phoned 999 in a ‘highly distressed state’ following the alleged incident.

Gardaí and emergency services located the young woman minutes later, in the vicinity of the Civic Offices on nearby Wood Quay.

Senior sources say that the woman was ‘extremely upset and in deep shock’.

She was taken to hospital and was later fully medically assessed at a sexual assault treatment centre to determine the extent of her injuries.

Sources say her account of what happened is ‘extremely credible’ and gardaí are awaiting a medical report on the extent of her injuries. A major Garda investigation into the matter is under way at Kevin Street Garda station.

Since Sunday, investigating detectives have been obtaining all CCTV footage from the area where the alleged rape took place to try and track the movements of the young woman and the man she encountered on the street who, she says, brutally attacked her.

‘This seems a very credible case,’ said a well-placed source. Sources say that the young woman had been socialising with friends in a pub on the northside of Dublin city on Saturday night.

Her friends later went home and she remained out socialising. She was walking home alone through the southside of town when she came across her alleged attacker. They chatted for a couple of minutes, she told gardaí, and were walking along Winetavern Street when she says she was ‘dragged’ down a laneway by the man and violently raped.

She was willingly in his company for a couple of minutes before she says things ‘quickly turned bad’ and she was subjected to a horrific attack.

Gardaí do not have a good description of the man.

However, the area is relatively well covered by CCTV so detectives are hopeful that some good quality camera footage will be harvested.

Detectives are also in the process of interviewing the German student’s friends whose company she was in earlier on Saturday night. Gardaí are also seeking assistance from the pub where she had been socialising.

A significant amount of resources have been assigned to the investigation, which is being treated ‘extremely seriously’ by senior gardaí.

Medical results are expected in the next few days and will be pivotal to the investigation. The Garda Press Office yesterday confirmed an investigation was underway.

It said: ‘Gardaí are investigating an alleged sexual assault of a female. The incident occurred on the 2nd December… Investigations are ongoing.’

This would not be the first high-profile case involving a foreign student being raped while holidaying or studying here. Just last month, Eoin Berkley was sentenced to 14 years in prison for what the court described as the ‘horrific’ rapes of a young Spanish girl in Dublin last year.

Berkley, of Hampton Wood Way, Finglas, Dublin pleaded guilty to three counts of rape.

He also threatened to kill the then 18-year-old Spanish woman and falsely imprisoned her during an ordeal which lasted 21 hours on 15 and 16 July 2017.

In a separate case over a decade ago, Galwayman Gerald Barry was found responsible for the murder of young Swiss student Manuela Riedo, and later found guilty of the rape of a French woman seven weeks prior to the murder.