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Man cleared of raping prostitute
A Lithuanian man has been cleared of a charge of raping a Dublin prostitute two years ago. The 35-year-old was found not guilty by a jury at the Central Criminal Court of raping and attempting to anally rape the woman on May 27th, 2006, in a south city suburban flat. The jury acquitted him after more than four hours of deliberation.
The accused had denied two charges of raping the woman at the start of his six-day trial.
The jury heard that after the accused paid the woman €200 she put a condom on him but discovered after they had been having sex for some minutes that he was no longer wearing it.
The woman alleged that the accused continued to have sex with her when she asked him to stop.
She agreed, in cross-examination, that "it never entered my head" at that stage to offer the accused his money back.
Application on lawyer adjourned
An application by the Law Society to freeze the accounts of a solicitor with an alleged €1 million deficit in his client account was adjourned at the High Court for a fourth time yesterday.
The press were again excluded from the hearing before the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Richard Johnson, who has given the solicitor an opportunity to raise funds to meet the deficit.
Following the in camera hearing yesterday, the case was adjourned again for another week.
Woman in stab case remanded
A woman charged with stabbing a man at a house party in Co Kilkenny has been remanded on continuing bail to May 19th.
Claire Nolan (22) appeared before Castlecomer District Court, Co Kilkenny, yesterday charged with assault causing harm to a man in his early 20s.
Ms Nolan, Kilkenny Road, Castlecomer, was arrested after gardaí were called to a disturbance at a house in the town in the early hours of January 30th this year.
The court heard the DPP had requested more time for the compilation of a book of evidence.
Two jailed for arson 'rampage'
Two former drug addicts who were part of a gang that set fires in an occupied house, four cars and a shed in an arson "rampage" have been given four- and three-year sentences at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Anthony Kinsella (26), Ballina, Co Mayo, and Shane Foster (24), Coolock, Dublin, were previously given a four-year sentence with two years suspended in May 2007 for another arson committed in the course of a burglary 18 days after these offences had occurred.