Gardai arrest rape suspect after giving chase across fields

Gardai chased the man through fields following the alleged sexual attack of a woman yesterday evening.

Gardai have confirmed that a man was in custody today following the incident at Fortunestown Lane at 7pm yesterday.

The victim of the attack is a foreign national in her 20s. Gardai told the Herald that the arrested suspect is also in his 20s.

Attack

Local sources said that there were up to 20 children in the vicinity of the alleged attack at the time.

Sources reported seeing gardai running through a field of high grass as they gave chase to a suspect.

“The grass is up to your waist where it happened,” said one witness. “You would be struggling to get through it.”

They also reported hearing gardai talk about a woman who had said she was attacked, and then saw a woman lying down in the back of a patrol car.

“She looked like she had fainted, she looked very, very weak,” the witness told the Herald.

“There were a lot of kids around, maybe 20 of them,” they added.

Locals said that long grass in the fields in the area, as well as overgrown bushes, make it difficult for people to be spotted in them.

“It becomes almost an opportunity for rape,” said one concerned local.

Gardai told the Herald that the arrested man was being held in Tallaght Garda Station for questioning.

It is believed that the alleged attack may have been witnessed from a nearby apartment complex, where a resident first thought some sort of fight was taking place.

However, they realised it was a sex attack when they looked out at the scene.

There were also reports that the suspect assaulted a man who tried to intervene in the attack, but this could not be confirmed by gardai today.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Tallaght Garda Station on 01 666 6000 or the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111.

Assaults

Gardai are expected to use a specialised computer system known as VICLAS to determine if yesterday’s alleged rape is linked to other similar sexual assaults.

VICLAS, the Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System, is a computer system developed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the early 1990s to compare different crimes for similarities.