An unidentified man who appeared before Dublin District Court on Tuesday after giving Gardaí 6 different names, 5 different birthdays, and 2 different countries of origin has since been linked to a 7th name.
As previously reported, the failed asylum seeker, who was arrested after he allegedly obstructed Gardaí who were attempting to search him for drugs, previously claimed to be from Palestine.
Having conducted enquiries in efforts to establish the true identity of the accused, Garda Oisín O’Toole of Store Street Garda station, said that he is still not satisfied of who the man is.
Garda O’Toole told the court that a “friend” of the accused had visited Store Street yesterday to “try and convince” Gardaí of a certain name in respect of him.
Garda O’Toole contacted IPAS who told him that the name provided did correspond to a male who has not been in IPAS accommodation since March this year.
Using the number from the Public Services card found in the possession of the accused, O’Toole approached the International Protection Office who found a match for the number in a new name, bringing the total number of names attached to the accused to 7.
Using this number, the IPO sent the Gardaí a copy of a passport in the name of a man whose international protection application was refused and is in the process of being appealed.
Garda O’Toole conceded that the photo on the passport does resemble the accused man, however he stated that he is “not satisfied” that it is the same person, or that the passport is genuine.
“I still wouldn’t be satisfied with the identity of this male,” he said, adding that the person who purported to be his “friend” had “tried to say he was someone else,” in circumstances where the photo of the passport supplied by the IPO is in a “completely different name” which “never came to light” previously.
“There is some doubt there,” he said, asking for the opportunity to obtain the actual passport to examine it.
“To be honest judge, I don’t know what more I can do,” he said.
Counsel for the accused made a renewed bail application, however Judge John Brennan remanded the man in custody instructing Gardaí to “make progress” on further enquiries into his identity by next week.
“His identity has to be established,” Judge Brennan said.
His defending counsel said that he had himself tried to enquire with IPAS as to his client’s identity but had been “Stonewalled with GDPR”.
The accused was remanded to Cloverhill District Court on the 28th of August with an Arabic interpreter certified for that date.
As he was taken back to the holding cells, the accused said, “What’s going on?”