Rape suspect walked free despite five bail breaches
Charges in attack on Spanish teen
A MAN charged with raping a Spanish student should have been in custody for breaching bail conditions at the time of the alleged attack last weekend.
A court heard there were at least five occasions in recent months when the man (24) was seen by gardaí flouting the terms of his bail in Dublin city centre, but no action was taken.
The revelations raise major questions for An Garda Síochána. There was a public outcry when the suspect, who has a history of mental health issues, was freed without charge earlier this week after being held for questioning for two days.
Gardaí believed they had sufficient evidence to bring a rape charge at the time but the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions disagreed.
Garda sources also said inquiries were made to establish whether or not the man could be held for breaching bail conditions, but no evidence of a breach could be found. It is now clear there was ample evidence he had breached his conditions and that details were recorded on the Garda Pulse computer system.
The 24-year-old was yesterday charged with the rape, false imprisonment and threatening to kill the 18-year-old alleged victim at the Irish Glass Bottle site in Ringsend.
AMAN suspected of raping a Spanish student should have been in custody for breaching bail conditions at the time of the alleged attack last weekend.
A court has heard there were at least five occasions in recent months when the man (24) was seen by gardaí flouting the terms of his bail, but action was not taken.
The revelations raise major questions for An Garda Síochána.
There was a public outcry when the suspect, who has a history of mental health issues, was released without charge on Tuesday after being held for questioning.
Gardaí believed they had sufficient evidence to bring a rape charge at the time but the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions disagreed.
Garda sources also said inquiries were made to establish whether or not the man could be held for breaching bail conditions, but no evidence of a breach could be found. It is now clear there was ample evidence he had breached his conditions and that details were recorded on the Garda Pulse computer system.
Earlier this year, the man was charged with a public order offence and granted bail. His bail terms stated he was to stay away from a certain part of Dublin city centre. He was to sign on daily at a garda station and be of good behaviour.
At a court hearing yesterday where the rape suspect’s bail was finally revoked, it emerged the man was seen by gardaí in the part of the city centre he was banned from on at least five occasions after agreeing to the bail conditions.
Several gardaí testified that they had observed the man breaching his bail conditions.
The court heard that on May 29 he was seen by a garda at a pub in the area.
On June 4, the same garda saw the man on a road in the area he was banned from.
Another garda saw the man on a different street nearby on June 29 and charged him with a public order offence. The man was granted station bail and let go. No attempt was made to apply for him to be taken into custody for breaching his bail conditions.
On July 5, the man was again seen by a garda in the area he was banned from.
The garda told the court he was aware of the man’s bail conditions but did not arrest him. Instead he directed him to leave the area.
He said he recorded the incident on Pulse.
Asked by a solicitor for the rape suspect if he commenced an application to revoke the man’s bail, the garda said he hadn’t as another garda was “the investigating member”.
The garda admitted he hadn’t informed the investigating member of the breach “at that time”.
The court heard that another garda saw the man in the area he should not have been in on July 8.
A solicitor for the man protested that it was “late in the day” to revoke his client’s bail. The solicitor said that from May 31 there were at least seven or eight occasions when his client had come to the attention of gardaí and no attempt was made to deal with breaches of bail conditions.
During the hearing, the solicitor said he wouldn’t be surprised if his client “took the view that gardaí weren’t too concerned with his bail conditions”. However, the judge agreed to revoke bail, saying there was “clear and overwhelming evidence” of a breach of bail conditions.
A short time later, in a separate hearing, the man was charged with raping, falsely imprisoning and threatening to kill the 18-year-old Spanish student at the Irish Glass Bottle site in Ringsend, on either July 15 or 16. The court heard he made no reply when the charges were put to him.
It also heard he had a “significant history” of mental health problems.
The alleged victim told gardaí she met the man in Dublin city centre on Saturday and was threatened, attacked, tied up and raped a number of times through Saturday night and into Sunday morning.
A Garda spokesman was contacted for comment, but none was forthcoming.