Man faces serious assault charges

A Dublin man is to appear in court next month to answer serious assault charges.

It is alleged the man assaulted a member of the extended family of Joseph Rafferty, who was shot dead four months later on the Ongar estate in west Dublin where he lived in December 2004.

During the same incident the man also tried to carry out a burglary at the victim's home.

The man now facing the assault and burglary charges is from the north inner city, not far from where the attack took place.

The December 2004 incident is believed to be linked to Mr Rafferty's subsequent murder, which was the culmination of a number of attacks on the 29-year-old and his extended family.

Mr Rafferty was shot by a lone gunman on April 12th last. In the months leading up to his murder he had become embroiled in a dispute with a family from that area.

Mr Rafferty was told a number of times by members of the family with whom he had clashed that he would be "got" by the IRA. The woman whose sons he had become embroiled with is in a relationship with a former member of the IRA.

He is the only suspect in the murder. Mr Rafferty's sister, Esther Uzell, reported the threats against her brother's life to Cllr Dáithí Doolan of Sinn Féin in late 2004 and early 2005.

She said Mr Doolan assured her on a number of occasions that the people involved had been spoken to and that the matter had been resolved. Mr Doolan has said at no time was any threat to Mr Rafferty's life reported to him. He has described Mr Rafferty's murder as a "cowardly and brutal act" and said those responsible must face justice.

With the assistance of Cllr Gary Keegan (FF), Ms Uzell, along with her sister Sandra and brother-in-law Bart Little, established the Justice for Joe campaign aimed at bringing Mr Rafferty's killer to justice.

They believe the Sinn Féin leadership could be doing more to put pressure on the murder suspect to give himself up to gardaí. Ms Uzell has said that because of the suspect's association with Sinn Féin/IRA the republican movement has a responsibility to help bring him to justice.

On St Patrick's Day Ms Uzell and family representatives were invited to the White House to meet US President George Bush.

On a previous visit to the US in February they also met US special envoy for NI, Mitchell Reiss. In Dublin they have met the US ambassador James C Kenny and representatives from the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC).

In its eight report published in February the IMC noted that "a member or former member of PIRA" may have been involved in Mr Rafferty's killing.

"We have no reason to believe that the murder was carried out on behalf of PIRA," the report noted. "However, we believe that members of both Sinn Féin and PIRA were aware in advance of the threat and did not take sufficient action to prevent it."