30 SEPTEMBER 2013

A CROWD of protesters remained outside Athlone Garda station late last night as it emerged a man is to face court this morning in connection with the alleged sɛҳuąƖ assault of two young girls.

Two men were released without charge yesterday and one man remains in Garda custody. He will appear before a sitting of the district court this morning at a venue to be decided.

Up to 300 people gathered outside the garda station where he has been held. By late last night, there were still up to 100 people maintaining their peaceful protest.

Earlier, a publican who chased down a suspect said he still hears the screams of two young girls who were allegedly raped.

The 49-year-old, who asked not to be named, said he joined the search for the girls when they went missing from the children's party, and held a suspect down until gardai arrived.

"What had me was the screams," he said. "I can hear them ever since in my head. They were bad."

The man said people were searching for the girls for up to 45 minutes before they appeared from the rear of the apartment in the Athlone housing estate.

Around the same time he spotted a man who did not live in the estate walking out of an apartment alone carrying a bottle of vodka and bag of alcohol.

He was one of three men arrested after the girls were found. He is expected to appear in court this morning charged in connection with the incident.

"People were roaring and shouting that he had the girls in the apartment," the local father of two said.

He had been in a car traversing streets in the estate trying to track the two missing young girls.

"He was almost on the main road when I drove up and stopped him," he said.

"He tried to hit me with the bottle of vodka. Myself and another friend held him down on the ground and we called the gardai.

"I asked him what he did with the kids. He said to me 'I didn't do anything to them'."

The man said that the man he apprehended denied harming the girls.

It is understood two men were found in the house where the alleged attacks took place but were sleeping after drinking.

Locals in the estate said they were unsure exactly what had happened until one of the girl's fathers took a phone call from his wife at the scene where a suspect had been stopped.

"The dad had to be held back," the publican said.

"The father of the child was losing the plot shouting 'what did you do to my baby'.

"I do not want to be a hero," he added.

"I didn't do anything that no one else would have done."

Early history[edit]

Early Irish law discouraged capital punishment. Murder was usually punished with two types of fine: a fixed éraic and a variable Log nEnech; killing the murderer was done only where he or his relatives could not pay the fine.[1] The execution of the murderer of Saint Patrick's charioteer Odran has been interpreted as a failed attempt to replace pagan restorative justice with Christian retributive justice.[2]

Article 40.4.5° prescribed the treatment of those under sentence of death; Article 28.3.3° deals with the suspension of rights during a state of emergency. On 7 June 2001, the Twenty-first Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland was one of three proposed amendments put to referendums. It added Article 15.5.2°, which prohibits the death penalty; deleted as redundant Article 40.4.5° and several other references to "capital crimes"; and amended Article 28.3.3° to prevent the death penalty being imposed during an emergency.[80][81] The amendment was passed on a turnout of 34.79%, with 610,455 in favour and 372,950 against.[82] The 38% no-vote was higher than the 28% predicted by polls; there were suggestions that the wording of the ballot question was confusing and that some voters were expressing dissatisfaction with the government.[83]

Ireland adopted the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR in 1993,[84][85] and the Sixth Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in 1994,[86] both of which prohibit the death penalty in peacetime.[87] The reservation to ICCPR Article 6(5) was withdrawn in 1994.[88] Ireland ratified the Thirteenth Protocol to the ECHR, which prohibits the death penalty in wartime, at its opening in 2002.[86]

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01 OCTOBER 2013

A HOMELESS man will be given protection in prison after being charged with the rape of two young girls who were lured away from a children's birthday party.

The 30-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was brought before Longford District Court where he faced four counts of rape - two allegations against each of the children.

Judge Seamus Hughes remanded the accused in custody until Friday, when he will appear before hαɾɾιstown District Court.

Noting "some marks" on the accused, the judge ordered he be put on ѕυιcιdє watch and afforded "all possible protections".

The judge said at the end of the eight-minute hearing: "I know it's a rather unusual thing to state but we are all living in the real world."

The suspect, who is originally from Co Galway, was charged at Athlone Garda station last night over alleged attacks on the youngsters, aged six and nine, on Saturday afternoon.

The children had been attending a birthday party at a housing estate on the outskirts of the town when they went missing.

Two other men arrested following the attacks were released without charge early yesterday.

Sergeant Yvette McCormack told the court the accused made no reply to each of the four charges.

More than 300 people staged a protest outside throughout the day while the suspect was being questioned by detectives.

The suspect was taken from Athlone Garda station in the early hours of the morning after protesters left, and arrived at Longford Courthouse flanked by members of the armed support unit.

Today, a smaller group of 50 people shouted abuse at the accused as he was driven away in a Garda van through a car park at the back of the courthouse.

Security was tight inside and outside the building, with members of the armed support unit in the courtroom.

The accused, who had a scrape next to his left eye and a tattoo on the right-hand side of his neck, was flanked by gardai as he entered the packed court.

Looking towards the ground, he stood with his hands clasped in front of him, and was dressed in a black jacket, jeans, black shirt and new white trainers.

Defence solicitor Gearoid Geraghty made an application for a psychiatric evaluation on his client and requested he be kept on ѕυιcιdє watch.

"I have a concern about his ability to enter a plea in respect of this and want a psychiatric assessment," he told the judge, who had asked for a reason.

The solicitor also said his client, who is of no fixed abode, was unemployed and applied for legal aid, which was granted.

He added that an application for bail had not even been contemplated.

Judge Hughes reminded the media of their duty in the case of both the defendant and the alleged victims.

Superintendent Noreen McBrien, of Athlone Garda station, told the judge that some comment in the media had come to her attention that could "be unhelpful" in the future progression of the trial.

Mr Geraghty said he was "conscious of not saying anything that will influence an already fraught situation" but revealed he had also raised concerns over pre-trial publicity with senior gardai.

"I'm worried about the integrity of the process, nothing else," the solicitor added.

The judge warned the media to have a duty of care in preserving the anonymity of the accused and both complainants.

"I well understand the heightened emotions of the case, as have been publicised in the media in the last 24 hours," Judge Hughes said.

"But I have every confidence that the public will assist gardai in their hard work and allow the legal process to take its course."

Judge Hughes added that there appears to be total freedom and an absence of rules and regulations on reporting until a suspect has been charged.

"He was charged here today," he added. "I've given the statutory warning. It only applies as from today."

Sarah Stack

Press Association