The 39-year-old man appeared before a special sitting of the district court at Bandon in west Cork, where he was charged with the rape of the woman at Castlehyde in Fermoy on 19 November. Detective Sergant Danny Holland told Judge Colm Roberts that the defendant, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, made no reply when the charge was put to him after caution at 3am. Det Sgt Holland said the injured party was in the town of Fermoy to attend a social event on the evening of 18 November. She left a nightclub at around 2am. One of her friends received a call from her at about 2.30am where she was shouting for assistance. The call was cut off. Det Sgt Holland said that shortly afterwards one of the injured party’s friends received a Snapchat message from her where she was again asking for help. Her friends went looking for her around the town but they were unable to find her. At around 5am they raised the alarm and informed gardaí, who also began a search for the young woman. Gardaí looked at the Snapchat message and determined that it had been sent from the Castlehyde area. They searched the area and found the young woman in a derelict house at around 8am. The young woman had sustained cuts on her arms which suggested that she had run through brambles. She was conscious but not responsive. She was also hypothermic and unable to give gardaí any account of how she got to the property. Det Sgt Holland said that it was fortunate that the injured party was found “when she was” as he “would have had serious concerns for her health and welfare”. She was subsequently taken for treatment at Cork University Hospital in the city. Gardaí collected CCTV footage from around Fermoy. They established that the woman got into the back seat of a car, for which they were able to get a partial registration number, make and model. They tracked the car to an address in Munster. A man was arrested for questioning and subsequently detained at Fermoy Garda Station. The man told gardaí that he had picked up the woman and she fell asleep. He claimed that he tried to wake her but was unable to do so. Judge Roberts remanded the man in custody. He will be back before the district court in Fermoy next Friday.
