The production of an identikit drawing of a man suspected of raping an eight-year-old Cork girl in the city on Saturday evening last, has been deferred until today because of new information supplied to the Garda authorities.
The Garda investigating team, under Supt P.J. Brennan, had hoped to publish the identikit likeness yesterday but decided not to do so because a number of other people had come forward with information which could lead to a better image. Supt Brennan told The Irish Times that a number of people already interviewed were being re-interviewed so as to achieve a better evaluation of the information already in possession of Cork gardai.
He said the response to Garda appeals for information concerning the attack on the child had been very good but he also renewed the appeal for more information. One other development yesterday was that the house-to-house search in the St Luke's, Dillon's Cross, Gardiner's Hill, area of Cork, where the child was raped, was extended to include people living around the Glen recreational park, not far from where the girl was molested.
"There was no particular significance to our decision to extend the search - we just want to talk to as many people as possible and that is what we have been doing. We have already interviewed hundreds of people in the area," Supt Brennan said.
He added that once the identikit image had been satisfactorily completed it would be circulated and hopefully it would produce new leads for the 15-strong team which is investigating the crime, using the same format as gardai use during a murder investigation. "Our aim is that every single piece of relevant information concerning the assailant will be put together so as to allow us to produce an identikit picture that will jog people's memory. We didn't want to be premature with this and our desire was to achieve an image that would bear a real likeness to the perpetrator," he added.
The girl who was raped was playing with her six-year-old sister last Saturday between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. when the attack occurred. She was approached by a man in his late teens or early twenties and offered ice cream and shelter during a heavy rain shower. The two young girls ran away but the rapist followed the girl and dragged her into an area of waste ground where he attacked her.
She is now undergoing counselling and she is said to be "doing well" under the circumstances.