A woman who alleged she was the victim of a gang rape in Ireland has been arrested and temporarily imprisoned after refusing to give evidence against the three men accused of assaulting her.
The men, who have not been named for legal reasons, were acquitted last week of rape, false imprisonment and assault. However, campaigners have condemned the treatment of the woman, who was told by the judge, Justice Paul Carney, to stand directly in front of the three accused and point out her alleged assailants.
The woman, who is from Eastern Europe, became so distressed that lawyers later complained they had feared she might collapse in court. When she failed to appear in court the next day, a warrant was issued for her arrest.
Police officers found the woman at her home, where she had apparently attempted suicide, but after receiving medical treatment she was arrested and spent a day in the jail cells of Dublin’s Four Courts.
Reporting restrictions meant that the woman’s arrest could not be made public during the trial for fear of prejudicing the proceedings.
Sources in the Garda Siochana, the Irish national police force, stressed on the weekend that the case was still “listed” in the Dublin courts and the judge involved could order a retrial. That, however, hinges on whether the woman is prepared to testify again.
In issuing the warrant for the woman’s arrest, Carney indicated that there could be a retrial. He said: “If she has to spend a long time in prison herself waiting for a retrial, that’s her fault.”
The first of the accused, a 28-year-old man, lived in the same house as the woman and her partner. He was alleged to have falsely imprisoned the woman, raped her and assaulted her and her partner, causing them harm.
The second man, a 20-year-old, was accused of assaulting the couple, causing them harm, falsely imprisoning the woman and raping her. The third man, also 20, was accused of rape. The trial heard that the alleged attacks took place from Nov. 15 to Nov. 19, 2010.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
RSS