A man who absconded midway through a sexual assault trial at Wicklow Circuit Criminal Court was apprehended on Monday and has now begun the nine-year prison sentence handed down to him. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been charged with two counts of sexual assault. During sentencing in November 2025, Detective Garda Sinéad Brosnahan told Wicklow Circuit Court that the trial began on June 26, 2025. The court heard that numerous calls were made to him, but these went unanswered, and his phone later went out of service. The victim described the situation as “unusual and extremely strange”.

Source: Irish Independent February 21, 2026 08:31 UTC