Three Romanian men have been freed by the Central Criminal Court after the judge directed the jury to find them not guilty of raping and abducting a former prostitute.
Mr Justice Barry White told the jury he was withdrawing the case from it and directing it to return not guilty verdicts because of inherent weaknesses, inconsistencies and contradictions in sworn evidence given by the woman to the District Court and in the Central Criminal Court.
The three accused, aged 40, 31 and 30 respectively, had pleaded not guilty to charges of rape, oral rape and false imprisonment of the woman in the Collins Barracks, Brunswick Street and Islandbridge areas of the city on March 28th, 2000.
Two of them denied raping her and falsely imprisoning her at an address on the North Circular Road on the same date, and one of them denied robbing about £140 from her at Islandbridge.
Mr Justice White said there was no onus on the accused in an Irish court to prove innocence but there was on the prosecution to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
He had read a transcript of the four days proceedings overnight and had come to the conclusion that the woman's evidence on oath in two courts was contradictory on important points.
Mr Justice White one major issue in this case was that of consent starting with the question of whether or not she had gone voluntarily with the three accused. She told the District Court she had directed them to a certain point but told the jury she was held down in their car.
"If we cannot rely on her evidence about the alleged abduction, we cannot rely on her evidence on all that followed", he said.