A MAN has appeared in court charged with the murder of 18-year-old Marioara Rostas, whose body was found buried in the Wicklow Mountains in January, four years after she disappeared while begging at traffic lights in Dublin’s inner city.
Alan Wilson (33), New Street Gardens, Dublin, appeared before Judge Patrick Clyne at a special sitting of Dublin District Court last night. He was charged with the murder of Ms Rostas, a Romanian national, at a house on Brabazon Street, Dublin, on January 8th, 2008.
Det Insp Michael Cryan told the court that he arrested the accused at 4.15pm yesterday in west Dublin and when the murder charge was later put to him at Pearse Street Garda station he replied: “I didn’t do this.”
Solicitor Donough Molloy told the court that no application could be made in relation to bail for Mr Wilson.
Judge Clyne granted an application for legal aid and remanded Mr Wilson in custody to appear before Cloverhill District Court on Thursday, April 12th.
He did not address the court at the brief hearing, during which he had his hands in his pockets. As he was being brought out one man in the public gallery leaned over to speak a few words of support to him.
The body of Ms Rostas was discovered wrapped in a plastic sheet in a shallow grave in a mountainous area at Kippure near Manor Kilbride, Co Wicklow, on January 23rd last, after a 13-day search operation by a Garda team.
A postmortem confirmed that Ms Rostas, last seen alive on January 6th, 2008, died as a result of a gunshot wound. She had arrived in the State three weeks before she disappeared while begging with her 15-year-old brother at traffic lights at the junction of Lombard Street East and Pearse Street. She got into a car at the traffic lights and was never seen alive again.
Ms Rostas was one of 15 children born in Timisoara. Her parents came to Ireland in 2007 and later joined by their daughter.
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