A Dublin man walked free today after the Court of Criminal Appeal overturned his conviction for abducting and assaulting an American woman in 1999.
The CCA directed there should be no re-trial in the case.
Barry Fitzgerald (33), formerly of Woverton Glen, Dalkey, and with an address at Martello Road, Sandycove, was convicted by a jury in November 2001 and freed on bail the following month pending his appeal.
The three-judge CCA allowed his appeal against conviction on grounds relating to the refusal to allow the defence time to make certain inquiries about the alleged victim which, the defence argued, were relevant to her credibility.
After quashing the conviction, Ms Justice McGuinness, presiding over the three judge court, said it appeared there was no great purpose in ordering a re-trial.
It would be unsatisfactory and unfair to Mr Fitzgerald to order a retrial after all the time that had elapsed.
Mr Fitzgerald had spent two and half months in jail.
At the trial in the Central Criminal Court in November 2001, Ms Elizabeth Galluci from Boston told a jury that she and and Mr Fitzgerald met in a pub in Temple Bar and went to a club together. He offered her a lift homewards but instead drove her to his home in Dalkey, she said.
Ms Galluci said that, while at his home, she had said she wanted to get a taxi back to her hotel but he told her there would be none at that time. He said he would drive her back home and she agreed because she felt she had no choice.
Ms Galluci alleged that Mr Fitzgerald took what was called in court an "insane" route through the Dublin mountains.
In his evidence, Mr Fitzgerald said he had taken the route through the mountains to avoid any garda checkpoints as he was fearful of being caught drunk driving.
In the appeal, it was argued the conviction was unsafe and unsatisfactory in circumstances where the prosecution and the trial judge had debarred the defence from making inquiries of Ms Galluci relevant to credit.
It was argued that, subsequent to Mr Fitzgerald's conviction, information relating to Ms Galluci's marital history and other matters had come to light.
That information might have been employed at the trial to advance the defence case or undermine the prosecution case, it was submitted.
It was also argued that the trial judge had erred in a part of his charge to the jury in his definition of "recklessness".