A man and woman have been charged in connection with the robbery of a French student in Cork in which it was alleged that a teacher who tried to intervene suffered a stab wound to the back.
The couple, who are both in their late 20s, were both brought before Cork District Court where they were each charged with robbery of the French student at Patrick Street in Cork on July 23rd.
Judge Mary Dorgan made an order that the couple cannot be named or identified in any way at this stage for legal reasons, but she did indicate that she would review the order at a future date.
Det Gda Conor Cronin said both man and woman had made no reply when the charge was separately put to them after caution.
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He said gardaí were objecting to bail for the man because of the seriousness of the charge and the strength of evidence in the case.
He said the state would allege that a group of French students were with their teachers on Patrick Street at around 10.20pm on July 23rd when they were approached by a couple.
The woman accused a boy in the group of laughing at her and then, when she confronted a girl in the group, she grabbed her Samsung mobile phone and ran off towards Merchant’s Quay.
Det Garda Cronin said the state would allege that a male teacher in the group ran after the woman to retrieve the phone and as he tried to take it back, he was hit in the back by the man.
He said the state would allege that the man stabbed the teacher up to 10 times in the back with what gardaí believe was a screwdriver before both the man and woman fled.
He said gardaí had secured CCTV footage from the area and were able to identify the two accused as the man and woman who had confronted the students and stole the phone.
He said Det Garda Brian Murphy had met the couple in Fermoy on Wednesday and the woman handed him the stolen Samsung phone and the man admitted he knew it was stolen.
He also said the man had identified himself on the CCTV footage when shown it at interview following his arrest and admitted the robbery but had denied stabbing the French teacher.
Cross-examined by the man’s barrister, Alan O’Dwyer BL, Det Garda Cronin accepted that there was no screwdriver visible in the CCTV footage of the incident obtained by gardaí.
However, Det Garda Cronin said that gardaí had obtained statements from three witnesses which supported the gardaí allegation that the French teacher was stabbed in the incident.
Det Garda Cronin confirmed that gardaí had no objection to bail with conditions for the woman and Mr O’Dwyer said she would be willing to abide by the conditions sought by gardaí.
Judge Dorgan granted the woman bail on her own bond of €1,000 with a number of conditions to appear again at Cork District Court on September 26th for DPP’s directions on the matter.
Among the conditions was that the woman sign on daily at her local Garda station, keep a 11pm to 6am curfew, abstain from all intoxicants and provide gardaí with a contact phone number.
Judge Dorgan remanded the man in custody with consent to bail on his own bond of €1,000 of which €750 has to be in cash, to appear again on July 30th by video link if in custody or in person if released.
She also imposed a number of conditions including that he sign on daily at his local Garda station, keep a 6pm to 8am curfew and provide gardaí with a contact mobile phone number.
She also made it a condition of the man’s bail that he engage with Arbour House Treatment Centre and provide urine samples every three weeks to prove he is drug free.
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