Gardaí yesterday arrested a 26-year-old Dublin man in Co Kerry for questioning about an attack on a young woman who was kidnapped and driven to the Wicklow mountains, where she was subjected to a particularly violent sexual assault.
Gardaí arrested the man in Tralee town around 5pm and he was detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act at Tralee Garda station for questioning about the attack on the 22-year- old woman early on Sunday. He can be held for up to 12 hours.
Yesterday's arrest followed the discovery by gardaí on Tuesday of a blue saloon car in the Boherbee area of Tralee which they believed was used to drive the young woman from Dublin to the Wicklow mountains.
Gardaí in Tralee notified their colleagues in Shankill, Co Dublin, and an investigation team including technical experts travelled from Dublin to Tralee yesterday morning to examine the car.
Gardaí placed surveillance on the vehicle in the hope that the driver would return, and when a man approached the car yesterday afternoon, officers from the investigation team from Shankill, backed up by local officers, arrested him.
According to an informed source, gardaí were last night confident that, following a preliminary forensic examination of the car, they will be able to connect it to the false imprisonment and sexual attack on the young woman in Wicklow.
The sexual assault happened in the early hours on Sunday after the woman, who had earlier celebrated her graduation, left Copper Face Jack's late-night bar on Harcourt Street, Dublin, shortly after 2.20am and mistakenly got into her attacker's car, thinking it was a taxi.
During the prolonged false imprisonment and assault, the young woman was tied up and severely beaten with what is believed to have been a baseball bat, sustaining serious injuries to her head and body, including having several teeth broken.
The man drove the young woman to a remote location in the Wicklow mountains, where he tried to rape her but was disturbed by two men out hillwalking, who noticed the struggle in the car and approached the vehicle.
The car sped off down the road a short distance before the man dumped her and drove off.