A file is to be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions following the arrest of a man in Cork yesterday for questioning in connection with a sexual assault on a French woman tourist on September 7th last.
The woman, who was returning to Paris on the early-morning scheduled flight from Cork Airport on September 7th, telephoned for a taxi and waited for it at the roadside near Jurys Hotel at Lancaster Quay in Cork. At 4.30 a.m. a white minibus with Lee Cabs markings drew up and, believing it was her taxi, the woman got in. It transpired later that the taxi had been stolen from the Dillon's Cross area of Cork.
The driver took the woman on a circuitous route to Cork Airport and drove the cab to a secluded area behind the airport near Harlequins Hockey Club. He then produced a screwdriver, threatened the woman and sexually assaulted her before robbing her. The burnt-out minibus was subsequently discovered in the Togher area of Cork.
Gardai visited a house in the Shandon area of Cork city early yesterday morning and arrested a man under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act. He was later released and a file is to be sent to the DPP.