A court has learned that a woman endured a terrifying ordeal in Dublin’s Docklands as she was trailed, then hauled into a park where she was strangled and threatened with death in a sexual assault occurring early in the day. The individual brought up on charges for this attack, Marius Lacatus, aged 32, is accused of sexual assault and inflicting harm on the woman, who had been on her way to her place of work not long after 6am on Monday.
Lacatus, a parent to a single child and without a permanent place to live, was given conditional release, despite the objections of the Garda, during his appearance before Judge John Brennan at the Dublin District Court on Tuesday. According to Garda Shane Dineen who was present at the court proceeding, Lacatus did not respond when the charges were read. Dineen verbalized his opposition to bail on the grounds of strong substantiation, potential absconding risk, and the serious nature of the case. The court learned that Lacatus had been residing in Dublin, working as a builder from Romania for the past three years.
Police was alerted of the incident at roughly 6.15am; upon reaching the site, the victim divulged that she’d been sexually violated by an unidentified man who had forcefully led her off the street and further into a park. During the contested bail hearing, it was conveyed that the woman had sustained facial harm and considerable muscle trauma around her neck area. It was further stated that the accused had strangled the victim throughout the assault.
The court was informed that the female had been shoved to the ground, the offender had unfastened his trousers, reached into her undergarments using his hand, but hadn’t violated her.
Present was also the dreadful allegation that the man had vociferously threatened, multiple times during the incident, to murder her.
According to Garda Dineen’s account, Lacatus had been found hidden under a hedge beneath a nearby bridge, his trousers undone.
Lacatus was apprehended at 7.13am and transported to the Garda station. His interview had to be held in abeyance due to his significant state of inebriation. The court also heard from the gardaí that surveillance footage evidence was presented to the accused, and his DNA samples were collected.
In a court proceeding, Garda revealed that further significant accusations could arise as final instructions from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) were yet to be issued. The defence and the prosecutor’s officer, Paddy McGarry, concurred that the defendant migrated to Ireland three years back and his kinfolk resides here. It was suggested by the defence that the defendant might dwell with an acquaintance in Dublin and agree to stringent restrictions, however, Garda Dineen suggested that these terms wouldn’t ease his worries and insisted that the accused was caught in the act.
Judge Brennan contended that bail was the standard approach and declared that Garda failed to prove that the accused was a flight risk which necessitated denying bail. The jurist affirmed that since the defendant had connections to the jurisdiction, he could be admitted to bail in his guarantee of €500 with a separate surety of €3,000. Only upon lodging the surety, could the accused be set free and upon his release, he’d be required to reside at a particular address presented to and verified by the gardaí, supply a reachable phone number, relinquish his travel documents within a day, and respect a curfew from 11pm to 7am.
Judge Brennan granted legal support and confined him in custody with consent to post bail, scheduling him to appear again at Cloverhill District Court on August 27th, following directives from the DPP.