A 34-year-old man is due in court this morning charged with the false imprisonment and sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl in Co Westmeath on Tuesday night.
The man, from Tullamore, Co Offaly, was arrested at his home at 4 a.m. yesterday by gardaí investigating the girl's abduction in Kilbeggan. He was held for questioning yesterday at Athlone Garda station and is to appear before Mullingar District Court at 10.30 a.m. today
The arrest followed a widespread search for the girl, who had been bundled into a car about 400 metres from her home shortly after 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
The driver travelled several miles around the area, breaking a Garda checkpoint before dropping the girl off, shortly after midnight, close to the same spot from where she had been taken.
The girl's mother yesterday described the abduction as the longest five hours of her life.
"It was terrifying," she told The Irish Times. "It was five hours of worry, and when it got dark it was worse. We didn't have anything to go on except a description from one person of the car. I'd have been walking around all night looking for her but, thank God, she is returned. It's a happy ending, I suppose."
The girl was abducted on Streamstown Road, near the back entrance to Locke's Distillery, just off the main street in Kilbeggan. She had been walking back to her home from a shop in the town where she had bought biscuits and a soft drink.
"The first we knew was when a friend called by to say she'd seen her scooter and the biscuits lying on the side of the road," said the girl's mother.
Up to 200 locals joined in the search, along with more than 30 gardaí and two units of the local fire brigade. Garda checkpoints were set up at several major junctions in the area. Many of those who helped in the search had been celebrating Ireland's victory in the World Cup earlier that day.
The girl had watched the match with her family at their home, her mother recalled. "Who'd have thought we'd be going through this terrible experience a few hours later," she said.
A man acting suspiciously in the area, believed to have been the assailant, had been seen on foot earlier wearing a green Irish soccer jersey.
"He pulled her into the car and drove right past some other kids who'd been playing football on the grass," said the girl's mother. "We searched the field and the river and travelled a few miles out of town but there was no sign of her."
At five minutes past midnight the car broke through one of the Garda checkpoints about three-quarters of a mile outside Kilbeggan on the Streamstown Road, travelling towards the town. It is understood the man had driven north to Mullingar and on towards Kinnegad but had turned around on seeing a checkpoint. It is believed he was trying to get to Tullamore, south of Kilbeggan.
About five minutes after breaking through the checkpoint the driver let the girl out of his car, close to where she was abducted. She was found by her mother in a distressed state.
"I'd been looking up the road to see what was happening and I looked to the left and I said, 'Is that her?' And thank God it was. I never felt such relief."
The girl was taken to the Midlands Regional Hospital in Mullingar for tests, and gave an initial statement to gardaí yesterday. She is also to be interviewed by detectives from the Garda Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault unit.
The girl's father expressed gratitude to the local community for helping in the search. Her grandmother added: "I never thought we had as good neighbours. Only for them we would never have got her back." She said the incident highlighted the need for a safe play area for local children.
The man arrested was also questioned about an abduction in nearby Moate last November. That involved an eight-year-old girl, taken by a male driver who circled the area before releasing her.
