A man who admitted having sex with a 14-year-old Irish girl has been allowed to withdraw his guilty plea at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court as a result of this week's Supreme Court judgment.
The man (26), originally from Romania, had been due for sentence for having unlawful carnal knowledge of a girl under 15 years of age in a flat in north Dublin on April 17th, 2003.
Karen O'Connor BL, prosecuting, told Judge Frank O'Donnell that the Director of Public Prosecutions was not proceeding with its unlawful carnal knowledge case as a result of the Supreme Court judgment on the unconstitutionality of these charges.
Det Sgt Denis Smith earlier said the man admitted he had sex with a 14-year-old girl while drinking alcohol in a friend's flat with three girls and two other men.
Det Sgt Smith agreed with Niall Durnin SC, defending, that the girl told the accused she was 18 years old and that the other girls in the apartment had claimed to be 15 and 17.
However, the man was jailed yesterday for four years by Judge O'Donnell for a separate crime in which he kidnapped a man to rob him.
He admitted falsely imprisoning a fellow Romanian at Clontarf Road on June 27th, 2003, and robbery of €600 cash, bank cards and a phone from him at Sutton Cross, and also to stealing €260 cash from him at the AIB, Artane on June 28th, 2003.
Judge O'Donnell said his victim had suffered considerably as a result of the robbery and that a letter of regret from the accused, presented to the court, had little value as he had initially denied any wrongdoing and accused his victim of lying.
Det Garda Gráinne McDonnell said the victim was a chef and met the accused in Clontarf in order to buy knives from him for work. He got into the accused's car, where a second man was in the passenger seat. The accused drove to a bridge where another man got into the car. This man stuck the victim across the face and then searched and beat him for 10 minutes and threatened to kill him if he did not give his attackers the Pin number for his ATM card.
Det Garda McDonnell said that after money had been taken from the victim's account, he was driven to Sutton Dinghy Club, taken from the car and chased to the water's edge. His attackers tried to push him into the water but he escaped and flagged down a taxi.
Det Garda McDonnell said that while the accused did not physically assault the victim he was "director of operations on the night".
The accused came to Ireland six years ago, has residency here and has fathered two children to an Irish woman. He had eight previous convictions in this country for road traffic and theft offences.