GARDAÍ HAVE released without charge five people arrested in connection with serious assaults on two couples, including the alleged rape of a woman, in Co Louth early on Tuesday morning.
Five teenagers and a 23-year-old man were quizzed about the assaults, which occurred at Townley Hall near Drogheda. One was arrested on Tuesday and released later that day.
Gardaí believe an iron bar as well as a crowbar and possibly a golf club were used in the incident.
Gardaí are satisfied both couples were physically assaulted, and last night the two women and one of the men remained in hospital.
The father of one of the women, Christina Leslie, who had her teeth, nose and jaw broken, said she has had to have her broken jaw rewired, but that her face was so swollen that surgeons would not operate until next week.
“We are just coming home from visiting her in St James’s Hospital in Dublin and her jaw is still very swollen, and her face. She is going back to the Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda until next Monday, when she’s to go to St James’s so they can put wire in her jaw,” James Leslie said.
He acknowledged his daughter had given gardaí “a breakthrough” in the investigation when she said she recognised one of the alleged gang members in the emergency department of the Lourdes Hospital at around 6am on Tuesday.
Mr Leslie was with her when she pointed to a young man who arrived at the hospital, and alleged he was one of the men who attacked her and who she had fought off.At one point she struck out with the pointed heel of her shoe and made contact with the face of one of the gang members.
The other woman, who alleged she was sexually assaulted, was examined at a special unit in a Dublin hospital where samples for forensic examination were taken.
Gardaí from the divisional scenes of crime examination unit remained at Townley Hall yesterday. They were painstakingly working their way through trees and undergrowth and collecting evidence for the investigation. The car the couples were in when attacked has been examined, as has a car the gang are believed to have travelled in.
Gardaí were taken aback at the violence of the attack, and the local community in Tullyallen and Drogheda are in shock that such an attack could take place, particularly on their doorstep.
A Garda spokesman last night confirmed those arrested were released without charge, but said a file was being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.