Gardai seek international assistance with investigation into attacks

Gardai say they are following as many as 1,000 active lines of inquiry and have also sought international assistance as part of their investigation into recent violent attacks on women in Athlone. The scale of the investigation was made clear by Superintendent Aidan Glacken during a press briefing on Monday. He stated that Gardai have conducted some 6,000 house-to-house enquiries. They have collected photographs of 600 to 700 males in the area, and have also taken DNA samples from men. 'I have an extensive amount of resources available to me both technical and forensic, and all of that is in the mix at the moment,' said Supt Glacken. 'I don"t want to go into the specifics of particular incidents but whatever is available to us - whatever can be gathered from a scene examination or from victims - is in place, and our enquiries are not just based nationally. We have sought assistance internationally as well in trying to identify possible suspects for these crimes.' Gardai called upon a behavioural analyst and psychological profiler to aid the investigation, but Supt Glacken said help from the general public would be crucial to solving the case. He stated that while there were strong similarities between the five attacks which have taken place - four in the Bonavalley bridge area and one in Hallsbridge on the west side of the town - it was still too early to say whether the same man had carried out the assaults. 'While we"re not saying that the one person is responsible for all of the attacks, there are some similarities and that possibility exists,' said Supt Glacken. 'There"s a rough description that we"ve gathered from the witnesses to date. This person appears to be operating on their own, if it is the one person. The description is of a man of maybe 5 foot 8, or 5 foot 10, with dark hair, slim athletic build, and distinctively large or deep-set eyes.' The local Garda chief said the perpetrator had been wearing dark cord trousers made with a heavy-type cord, and a fine-knit dark jumper with a white rim which may be on the jumper or may be a t-shirt underneath the jumper. In addition, Supt Glacken said there was 'a distinctive smell from this person. Quite an overpowering smell of something that"s been described as something akin to Joop aftershave.' The Superintendent wouldn"t confirm whether or not the attacks involved sexual assaults but said they were serious assaults of a physical nature and that robbery was not a motive in any of the cases. 'There are a lot of similarities to each of these incidents. There"s a certain degree of force that"s been used in each one of them that"s similar as well,' he stated. 'The modus operandi is quite similar in that obviously you have a female on their own being attacked from behind. This person is quite coy in displaying themselves from the point of view of allowing their face to be seen. There"s a certain element of violence and there"s a certain similarity but they"re not all the same and for that reason it"s too quick to jump to a conclusion that this is the one person. 'There are certain similarities between the scene of the last attack (at Hallsbridge) and the scene of the previous attacks at Bonavalley. As you know they"re only about 3 or 4 kilometres apart. It"s completely on the opposite side of the town. But, as an investigation team, we"re not saying that this is the one person. They could be all separate.' Asked whether previous offenders were being investigated as potential suspects for these crimes, the superintendent responded, 'Absolutely everything that we can do is being looked at within the investigative realm, be it sexual offenders or people who have some form of transient history... all of that is being examined.' Supt Glacken said it would be dangerous to form any assumption about the nationality of the attacker, but he did say that, based on the similarities of the victim accounts, the perpetrator was not a coloured person. He indicated that there were no plans to release another photofit of a suspect. Regarding how near or far a conclusive breakthrough in the case may be, Superintendent Glacken said, 'I"d like to give you a definitive answer on that but we have a huge trove out there. This is five separate investigations in one, and any of those investigations may generate a couple of hundred lines of enquiry, so all of that is being analysed and reviewed on a continuous basis. Absolutely everything from the point of view of time, times of day, days of the week, the weather, lighting - all of those factors are being considered.' Superintendent Glacken issued a further appeal to the public for assistance on RTE"s "Crimecall" programme yesterday (Tuesday) evening.