A 25-year-old man has been before Dublin District Court after walking out of an apartment building with a young child he did not know, “under his arm”.
The man, who cannot be named by order of the court, was arrested yesterday after the incident on Saturday and charged with unlawfully attempting to take or detain a child under 16.
The district court heard the man was at a party in an apartment building on the north side of the city but left the apartment he had been in.
He was seen on CCTV footage interacting with two young children aged five and 10.
The court heard he did not know the children.
Garda Laura McDermott told the court that at one point the man was seen leaving the building and walking away with the five-year-old under his arm.
The older child followed him and the man was then seen returning with both children.
The court heard that when arrested, the man replied: “I was not taking a child anywhere. I am not a person like that. I did not have any intentions with a child. I did not have any bad or unwanted intentions with the child.”
The man’s solicitor, Michael Kelleher, told the court the man was in the building at a party and was intoxicated.
Mr Kelleher said he was not in a position to make a bail application at the moment.
Judge Gerard Jones said it was a very serious matter and remanded the accused in custody until Wednesday at Cloverhill District Court.
He imposed reporting restrictions on the identity of the accused following an application by Garda McDermott based on “the current climate in the country”.
