Man (20) accused of 14 counts counts of rape and sexual assault of man
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was aged 16 and a juvenile at the time of the sexual abuse over a three month period in 2021.
Advertisement
He was arrested on Friday and charged with six counts of rape and eight for sexual assault at a specific address in south Co Dublin.
He appeared before Judge John Brennan at a late sitting of Dublin District Court.
Detective Garda Liam Conway said the young man's replied 'No' when each charge was put to him. The court heard that the Director of Public Prosecutions has directed that the man would face 'trial on indictment'. That means, due to the nature of some of the charges, he will be tried in the Central Criminal Court.
Detective Garda Conway confirmed that the accused was a minor when the alleged offences occured and there was no objection to bail provided he obeyed a series of conditions.
Advertisement
Judge Brennan ordered him to provide gardaí with a contact phone number, remain contactable at all times, notify them of any address change, sign on at a north Dublin Garda station, and surrender his passport. Furthermore, he told the man that it was as conditions of bail that must not communicate with the complainant, directly or indirectly, including by social media.
Defence counsel Kevin McCrave consulted with the accused who did not address the court, before telling the judge that his client consented to those terms.
Judge Brennan warned there would be consequences for breaching them and the barrister stressed that he would explain that to his client, who has yet indicate a plea.
Bail was set at €750 and he was ordered to appear at the Children's Court in September to be served with a book of evidence and returned for trial to the Central Criminal Court.
Legal aid was granted after the court heard the accused was a student, on social welfare and unemployed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
16 minutes ago
- The Independent
Lucy Letby's lawyer says killer nurse has ‘new hope'
Child killer Lucy Letby was a 'broken person' but now has a 'new hope', her barrister has said. Letby's parents contacted Mark McDonald almost a year ago and requested he take over from her previous lawyer and free her from prison, he said in an interview with the Sunday Times. A week later he met the killer, who is serving 15 whole-life orders after murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016. Mr McDonald said he is submitting 'new evidence' to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, and has also spent the past year working to boost public criticism of her convictions. He gathered a panel of 14 neonatal and paediatric experts, shared the babies' medical notes with them, and held a press conference casting doubt on the prosecution's case. Lawyers for the families of Letby's victims previously rubbished the panel's findings as 'full of analytical holes' and 'a rehash' of the defence case heard at trial. In July, Cheshire Police passed evidence of further allegations related to baby deaths and collapses at the hospitals where Letby, 35, worked. Mr McDonald, who is known for making high-profile appeals, told the Sunday Times: 'Remember, 12 months ago, she'd lost every argument. She had been saying that she was not guilty right from the beginning and nobody believed her. 'She went through a whole trial and she was convicted. She went to the Court of Appeal and she was convicted. 'She had a retrial; she was convicted. She went to the Court of Appeal again; she was convicted. And that was it. 'There, you have a broken person. But today, after everything that has happened in the last 12 months, she's got new hope.' McDonald, 59, estimated he has spent thousands of hours on Letby's case and spoke to the newspaper while on holiday with his two children, aged three and four. He said he speaks to the killer at least once every two weeks and visits her each month at Bronzefield prison, in Ashford, Surrey. 'I'm on holiday in Devon and I'm working on (the case). I had a telephone conference with Lucy yesterday. I won't stop. I will not stop until she is out,' he said. It is important to 'win the public narrative' of a potential miscarriage of justice case before taking on the legal narrative, because 'the Court of Appeal will know that the country is going to be looking at them', he added. The barrister claimed he has never submitted this much evidence to the CCRC and 'if this is not referred back to the Court of Appeal then one has to question the purpose of the CCRC'. The possible potential offences against Letby are now being considered by lawyers at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The news emerged hours after police confirmed three people who were part of the senior leadership team at the hospital where Letby worked have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter. Cheshire Constabulary said the suspects, who occupied senior positions at the Countess of Chester Hospital (CoCH) between 2015 and 2016, were arrested and later bailed pending further inquiries. Police said corporate manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter probes are continuing. Mr McDonald previously said the police's announcement about potential new charges against Letby came at a 'very sensitive time' and that a proper and full public inquiry into failings by the hospital is needed. In the latest interview, Mr McDonald told the Sunday Times: 'I'm not naive; I'm a criminal defence barrister – I've represented many people over the years who are guilty. 'But I'm also able to see very clearly where this has gone wrong. There's no forensic evidence. There's no CCTV. There's no eyewitness evidence. 'There's just a theory by a man called Dewi Evans,' he said, referring to the person who was the lead prosecution medical expert in her trial.
The Sun
17 minutes ago
- The Sun
Brazen shoplifters being set free by courts to offend again, says policing chief
BRAZEN shoplifters are being set free by courts to offend again, a policing chief has said. Katy Bourne described it as 'madness' how often they had to be arrested before ending up behind bars. 2 Ms Bourne, the national lead for shoplifting at the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, said: 'People have got to know that they're going to get caught and that there's a meaningful deterrent when they do it. There is no point arresting shoplifters if there is no effective deterrent.' Launching a scheme to electronically tag thieves, she insisted only 'meaningful criminal justice measures' would stop the huge rise in shoplifting blighting Britain's high streets. Her comments came after The Sun revealed gangs of migrant shoplifters were targeting London's Oxford Street. We also exposed thieves stripping shelves bare at Greggs stores across the county. Theft from shops hit a record high last year, with the number of offences topping 500,000 for the first time, up 20 per cent from 2023. Ms Bourne, police and crime commissioner for Sussex, said: 'What on earth has happened to our high streets and our city centres? Why do some people feel they can rob shops with impunity and abuse and assault staff without any fear of retribution?' She told the Daily Telegraph: 'If prison is not an option — and I think it should be but at the moment it clearly isn't as there are no places — then we've got to find credible alternatives.' She said Sussex would have the first electronic tagging scheme for shoplifters having struggled to get such a scheme rolled out nationally. She also criticised the use of data protection laws to advise shopkeepers not to share images of suspected offenders. It comes after police spoke to a shopkeeper in Wrexham, North Wales, over his sign about 'scumbag shoplifters'. N-ICE ONE- Iceland boss says customers will be PAID to snitch on thieves She commented: 'How have we got to the point where police forces are more worried about upsetting career criminals than catching them?' Boots is stashing medical products, including fertility supplements, behind counters amid the shoplifting epidemic. And an alarm sounds if a bar of chocolate is picked up at some Sainsbury's stores. 2
Daily Mail
17 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Probe into Conor McGregor trial witnesses: Couple who claimed they saw Nikita Hand beaten up by her ex on the night she was raped by MMA fighter investigated over perjury
Irish police are investigating if a couple who claimed in court documents that they had seen Nikita Hand's ex-partner beat her up on the same night that she was raped by former MMA fighter Conor McGregor were not living at the property in which they said they were at the time. Affidavits sworn by Steven Cummins and Samantha O'Reilly, who were named as witnesses in Mr McGregor's failed civil court rape appeal, are currently being investigated by officers from the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI) for suspected perjury. The couple previously rented a house directly across the road from Ms Hand in Drimnagh on Dublin's southside. However, it is understood one of the lines of inquiry being pursued by investigators is that Mr Cummins and Ms O'Reilly, who currently live in the Cherry Orchard area of the capital, were not actually living at the address when they claim they saw Ms Hand being assaulted by her former partner on the night of December 9, 2018. When approached by the Irish Mail on Sunday this week and asked directly if they lived at the address at the time, and to confirm the couple's whereabouts on the night, Ms O'Reilly responded by throwing a basin of water at our reporter from the top window of her council-owned home. Speaking through the window, she said: 'I do not want to be answering any questions and I do not want to be harassed. I am politely asking you to leave my premises please. No comment.' Asked again if she could confirm if the couple lived in the Drimnagh property on the night they claimed they saw Ms Hand being assaulted, she asked, 'Excuse me, what was the question?', before emptying a basin of water out the window. She then loudly asked one of her children to get a 'kettle of water'. Ms O'Reilly added: 'I'm giving you an opportunity to actually be safe. Do you want to have a water fight? Well, I want to have a water fight. It's a nice, sunny day.' The owners of the Drimnagh house the couple previously rented said they could not comment when asked if the couple lived at the address at the time they claim they witnessed the alleged attack on Ms Hand, who has vehemently denied she was ever assaulted by her former partner. Approached by the MoS, they said they had been 'instructed by gardaí not to comment'. Neighbours on the Drimnagh street where Mr Cummins and Ms O'Reilly temporarily lived across from Ms Hand said the couple lived there for a short time, and some struggled to remember what they looked like. Mr Cummins and Ms O'Reilly were due to give evidence at Mr McGregor's appeal against a civil case verdict after a jury found him liable for assault and ordered him to pay Ms Hand damages. Ms Hand, 35, accused Mr McGregor of raping her in a hotel penthouse in Dublin on December 9, 2018. Mr McGregor, 36, denied the allegation, claiming they had consensual, 'vigorous' sex. He appealed the verdict. Ms O'Reilly is seen throwing the basin of water at the journalist But on the morning the hearing was due to proceed last month, Mr Cummins and Ms O'Reilly's evidence was dramatically withdrawn at the last minute. Ms Hand described the couple's statements as untrue and lies. The Court of Appeal said the application to introduce the evidence was abandoned in 'somewhat mysterious' circumstances with no plausible reason given and awarded Ms Hand costs at the highest possible level. Judge Brian O'Moore noted the abandonment by Mr McGregor of the application could only be viewed by the court as an acknowledgment that Ms Hand was correct He also said her lawyers had not been exaggerating when they said this 'new evidence' had put Ms Hand through the wringer. The judge said she had prevailed in one of the most hard-fought trials of recent years. Speaking outside court, Ms Hand said: 'This appeal has retraumatised me over and over again, being forced to relive it. What happened has had a huge impact on me. 'To every survivor out there, I know how hard it is, but please don't be silenced. You deserve to be heard. You also deserve justice.' Following the failed appeal, Mr Cummins and Ms O'Reilly's sworn statements were referred by the Court of Appeal to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) after Ms Hand's legal team raised concerns about suspected perjury, and the 'subornation of perjury' by McGregor. The Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI) later received correspondence from the DPP. Last weekend, An Garda Síochána confirmed the NBCI was investigating allegations of perjury involving statements given by the couple named as witnesses in the failed appeal. Lodging a false affidavit is an offence under the Perjury Act 2021. Anyone who makes a sworn statement that is false, and knows it to be, is committing an act of perjury – an offence that carries a minimum penalty of €4,000 and 12 months in prison, and a maximum penalty of 10 years and a €100,000 fine.
