WARNING | 

Garda alert for Dublin van driver suspected of stalking streets to abduct and rape women

The criminal, who is aged in his late 50s, has multiple convictions and is classified as one of Ireland’s most dangerous sex offenders

Today at 07:47

A garda alert is in place for a sex offender who was previously suspected of stalking the streets of the capital in a van trying to abduct and rape sex workers.

The criminal, who is aged in his late 50s, has multiple convictions and is classified as one of Ireland’s most dangerous sex offenders. He has recently relocated to an address in Dublin’s north inner city.

He was seen by gardaí last weekend trying to interact with a woman who was on her own in a laneway in the Abbey Street area of the city.

Sources said gardaí did a welfare check on the woman and obtained the details of the notorious criminal, who is now living near where he was observed by gardaí.

The sex offender is still travelling around in a van, according to ­sources, and is being monitored by gardaí.

“This individual is classified as being a major danger to women. There are ongoing concerns about him,” a source told the Sunday World.

The man cannot be named here for legal reasons and has managed to avoid prosecution in recent times.

Such was the concern about the suspect’s criminal activities that in 2013 gardaí set up a special operation which involved undercover female gardaí who posed as sex workers in a number of locations in Dublin’s north inner city in an attempt to catch him.

However, this was unsuccessful and he fled the country.

He was later jailed in 2015 for separate criminal offences that occurred in Munster.

Again he left Ireland after serving this sentence but is now back in Dublin.

It was believed that the suspected serial rapist had been driving around north inner city Dublin in a modified van which contained an elaborate rape kit.

He was previously questioned about the double rape of two sex workers in a north Co Dublin hotel in August 2012.

Ten days before he allegedly raped the foreign sex workers, the man was stopped by gardaí while he was driving in a van with duct tape and cable ties.

He has previously been stopped carrying a knife and knuckle duster and has been involved in a terrifying but ­bizarre campaign against gardaí.

The sex workers who were picked up by the man in a van in the Ballsbridge area on August 10, 2012, were brought to a hotel.

While there, they alleged that they were given a substance and then savagely sexually assaulted.

The women went to Ballymun garda station the following morning, where they made a formal complaint about the events of the night.

They were then taken to hospital for treatment. Sometime later, he voluntarily attended the station, where he was interviewed by gardaí. He was not arrested.

The man stated that he had sexual intercourse with both women, but denied that he had raped them.

The DPP eventually decided not to charge the suspect with these offences but he was later charged with harassment and stalking after it was alleged that he then went to the Mater Hospital where one of the women was recovering and threatened to kill her if she did not withdraw her statement.

These charges were later dropped.