Garda refers 38 child incidents to special unit

The Garda has referred 38 incidents of suspicious approaches made to children within the past 2 1/2 months to its Trace (Tracing, Reviewing And Collating Evidence) Unit in Naas to identify similarities between any or all of the cases.

The move follows the latest incident, in which a teenage boy was approached in Newtownmountkennedy, Co Wicklow, and "begged" to accompany a middle-aged man to Bray, some seven miles away. The man was said to be driving a gold-coloured hatchback car.

The Naas unit, set up to identify similarities between the disappearances of several young women, will be examining attempted abductions, using a sophisticated computer system to see if patterns or links emerge in these cases.

The Naas unit is led by Asst Commissioner Mr Tony Hickey and includes a staff of five gardai under Supt Gerry O'Connell.

Chief Supt John Farrelly of the Garda Press Office said that while there was "no evidence of a paedophile ring in operation and no broad pattern between cases from Cork to Cavan" in some cases there were local similarities.

"We are talking about one or two clusters where a suspicious activity might be reported and another an hour later in a nearby area, with some similarities in terms of the car or the person, but this is not a general pattern that is emerging.

"The Naas group will look at all attempted abductions, at the descriptions and substance of the information we have and see if anything indicates the same people are involved," said Chief Supt Farrelly

Meanwhile, the chief superintendent has issued some precautionary advice for parents:

Know at all times the whereabouts of children;

Never put children in a position where they have to wait alone outside a school or elsewhere for collection;

Teach children to use the 999 or 112 emergency system;

Warn children not to take lifts from, or to approach strangers;

Warn children not to play alone or become isolated from friends and to wear bright reflective clothes on dark evenings.