Gardaí have arrested a suspect following the release of CCTV footage showing a woman being attacked during a bus journey in Rathfarnham, Dublin.
The footage of the incident, recorded on CCTV, was broadcast on RTÉ‘s Crimecall programme on Monday night and then widely shared on social media.
Less than 24 hours later, and after a significant response from the public, the suspect was located and arrested for questioning.
Insp Pat Duggan, who is leading the investigation from Rathmines Garda station, said the woman was “badly shaken” and “very shocked”.
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“It happened on a busy bus, in broad daylight,” he said. “She still uses public transport but she’d be very alert of her surroundings now.”
The attack occurred on the S8 route on a Go Ahead Ireland bus in south Dublin on the morning of May 29th as it travelled towards Dún Laoghaire. While an investigation has been underway since then, the decision to broadcast footage of the attack has now resulted in the suspect’s arrest.
“The man, aged in his 30s, was arrested this afternoon and is currently detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984 at a Garda station in Dublin,” the Garda said in a statement on Tuesday.
“An Garda Síochána would like to thank the public for their assistance following the recent appeal regarding this incident broadcast on last night’s Crimecall episode.”
Though the driver stopped the bus when he realised what was happening, and another passenger tried to intervene, the attack continued until a second passenger intervened to try to protect the victim.
The CCTV system recorded the woman, who was traveling alone, being thrown to the floor on the bus before being pushed towards the door, where her hair was pulled. The attacker, a man in his 30s, was apparently trying to force the victim off the bus.
In the footage shared by gardaí the man’s face, and his actions, are very clearly captured.
The attacker got onto the bus at around 8.30am at Belgard Square, Tallaght. After about 45 minutes, when the bus reached Grange Road, Rathfarnham, the woman got on at the Eden Avenue stop.
She made her way to the back of the bus and sat across from the man, with the attack beginning almost immediately. At first the man appeared to speak to the woman, then he grabbed her bag and threw it up the aisle.
When the woman stood up to go and retrieve her bag, the man blocked her path before grabbing her arm and pushing her up the aisle towards the driver. The violence then escalates, with the attacker grabbing the woman by the neck and pulling her hair.
When a second passenger intervened, and the woman successfully struggles to stay on the bus, the attacker went to the rear of the bus, took his belongings and alighted the bus. He appeared to go into a laneway in the Grange Court estate in Rathfarnham.
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