Good, old-fashioned police work solved the case of the attempted murder of Barbara Riouall, gardaí said after Aleksejus Belousovas was jailed for 15 years yesterday.
Outside the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Det Insp Gabriel O'Gara told how gardaí had trawled through about 100 hours of close circuit television (CCTV) footage in an effort to find the attacker.
Ms Riouall's apartment complex near Christchurch had CCTV but it did not show any unique features that could have helped to identify her attacker.
However, Garda Tim O'Keeffe from Pearse Street station picked up Belousovas's movements from CCTV footage from other cameras in the area.
Footage from a nearby Spar shop showed a CLG logo on the back of his jacket. At that time, Belousovas was working for this construction company on Dart improvement works. CLG did not employ many foreign nationals and, with the help of Belousovas's employers, gardaí quickly identified the worker who did not turn up for work on the day after the attack. By then, he had fled to Lithuania and travelled to a number of other European countries before arriving in England. With the help of Interpol, gardaí traced him to Derbyshire and he was extradited to face the charges.
"We are happy it has come to a conclusion," Det Insp O'Gara said yesterday and praised his colleagues' tenacity in tracing Belousovas. "Basically it was good, old-fashioned police work," he said. "We were always confident that we would get him."
Asked afterwards if she was happy with the sentence, Ms Riouall said "it is okay" and smiled before leaving the court.
