Gardaí are to prepare a file for the DPP after arresting and questioning a woman in her 30s about a report she made to gardaí that she was sexually assaulted by a group of foreign nationals in a Co Waterford town last month.
Detectives arrested the woman on March 9th and brought her to Dungarvan Garda station for questioning about the report that she had made alleging that she was sexually assaulted on February 19th by four foreign men in a laneway in Dungarvan.
The Garda Press Office confirmed to The Irish Times that a woman had been arrested and detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act and questioned for several hours about an offence of making a false report to gardaí, contrary to Section 12 of the Criminal Law Act 1976.
Gardaí later released the woman without charge. A file will now be prepared on the matter for the DPP, said the Garda Press Office, adding that gardaí are continuing to “investigate all the circumstances of an alleged attempted assault that is reported to have occurred on February 19th.”
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The penalty for making a false report or statement that an offence has been committed is a fine of up to €500 or imprisonment for up to 12 months if a person is convicted summarily in the District Court or imprisonment for up to five years if they are convicted on indictment at Circuit Court level.
The report of the alleged sexual assault was highlighted by anti-immigration activist Derek Blighe, who went to Dungarvan on February 23rd and, while representing himself as a citizen journalist, called to the local Garda station and questioned what progress had been made in the investigation.
In a post on YouTube viewed over 2,000 times, Mr Blighe said that he had received confirmation that the woman had been sexually assaulted by four foreign nationals and that an elderly woman who had come to her assistance had been physically assaulted.
“She left her boyfriend in a chipper, she walked outside the door where she met a foreign national man, who asked her for a light,” Mr Blighe claimed in his posting. “He walked away with her lighter and she followed him into an alleyway.
“She walked into the alleyway where three other men were waiting, and they grabbed her. They started to pull off her clothes – an elderly lady from nearby heard her screams and came to her assistance and the men ran away.”
Mr Blighe also alleged that gardaí had requested the removal of social media posts that she had been assaulted by foreign nationals because “apparently you are not allowed to state the ethnicity or nationality of the perpetrators, unless of course they are Irish”.
The Garda Press Office said that gardaí do not comment on social media postings by third parties, but they did say that gardaí are “acutely aware of the significant volume of misinformation, disinformation and fake news in circulation in relation to public safety.”
The Garda Press Office did also confirm that gardaí in Dungarvan “are not investigating any other similar alleged assaults at this time nor are Gardaí aware of any alleged spate of attacks by foreign nationals as suggested.”
“Under section 7 An Garda Síochána Act 2005, An Garda Síochána is the sole agency invested with the statutory role of preserving peace and public order. It is also An Garda Síochána’s statutory role to investigate crime and enforce enacted legislation,” it added.
