The equivalent of a full murder hunt investigation has been put in train by gardai in Cork trying to track down the rapist of an eight-year-old girl in the city on Saturday evening.
Supt P.J. Brennan of Mayfield Garda station, who is heading the 15-strong investigation team, said yesterday that the crime was appalling and depraved.
The perpetrator is now thought to have been in his late teens or early 20s and gardai are assembling an identikit portrait of him.
Throughout the day they interviewed hundreds of people in the Gardiner's Hill/Dillon's Cross/St Luke's area, where there are numerous housing estates. A renewed appeal was made for information, no matter how trivial.
"We are working around the clock on this crime, but it may take some time before we have results. We think, without being certain, that the man may have been hanging around the Dillon's Cross area for some time," Supt Brennan said.
"He may have been wearing dark jeans and a white or light-coloured top or sweatshirt with black lettering across the chest. He is about 5ft 11 in height, of slight build, and has short, cropped, light-coloured hair. We are not saying that someone is harbouring him, but we are again appealing to people to contact us if they think they know anything," he said, adding that the attack may have been a once-off opportunist crime.
The girl, he said, was in a "reasonable condition" following her ordeal. A garda who is also a trained nurse, and part of the Garda Victim Support team, was in touch with her and her family and she would be helped by Southern Health Board counsellors.
The child's father and mother were "going through hell", he added, but there was also help available for them.
When attacked, the little girl was wearing a blue fleece tracksuit top with white shoulder patches, royal blue tracksuit bottoms with white stripes on the legs and beige shoes.
Yesterday angry residents and parents throughout the city made their feelings of disgust known as caller after caller to local radio stations demanded that the attacker be caught and punished. Hundreds also phoned various Cork Garda stations demanding the same.
The rape took place in daylight, between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., when the attacker approached the girl, who was playing with her six-year-old sister, and offered them ice cream.
Though the victim ran away, he ran after her. As the eight-year-old ran on the footpath he chased after her on the other side of the road, dragged her on to waste ground and raped her. She was later found in a distressed state and her parents alerted. She was then taken to the South Infirmary Hospital and examined and treated.
In the St Luke's area where the attack took place, there wasn't much evidence of children at play last evening. "I don't want you to use their names or mine either. I have two little girls. Until this animal is behind bars, they will not be allowed out on the streets alone," one mother said.