Crime.ie

A US man has been reunited with his car 42 years after it was stolen.

Bob Russell had his Austin-Healey taken in 1970 but he managed to track it down after a Los Angeles car dealer listed the cream-coloured motor – which had the exact same identification number – on internet auction website eBay.

Russell paid $600 in impound fees after local police found the stolen vehicle report, which was filed more than 40 years ago, and he now believes the vehicle could be worth up to $50,000, despite the brakes not being in the best condition.

A Dublin mother is to spend 16 months in jail for sexually exploiting her four-year-old daughter by filming her on her mobile phone.

The 28-year-old, who cannot be named to protect the child’s identity, also pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the girl on March 12, 2010.

Judge Martin Nolan said he found the mobile phone footage disturbing and while he accepted the accused was not the brightest person in the world, he said she should have known that what she was doing was “dreadfully serious and reprehensible”.

The court heard the woman filmed her daughter with the girl’s father who is naked from the waist down.

Gardaí say the 28-year-old was so drunk she could not really remember what she had done and visibly gagged when she was shown the footage. Her daughter is now in care.

The video came to light accidentally when a member of the public found a smashed mobile phone and handed it in to gardaí over concerns about the content of the sim card.

The judge said he accepts the accused is genuinely remorseful and he has imposed a three-year sentence but suspended most of it bar 16 months.

The Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore will meet with Ireland’s ambassador to Mauritius shortly following the publication of photos of the hotel crime scene where Michaela McAreavey was murdered, as well as images of her body after she’d died.

The publication of the pictures have drawn severe criticism from politicians here, with the Taoiseach branding it a “gross affront to human dignity”.

Dick Ng Sui Wa, who was a member of John McAreavey’s legal team during the trial in which two men were acquitted of Michaela’s murder, is planning to report the incident to police.

He says it’s hugely upsetting, and he also wants it addressed by the Mauritian Prime Minister: “(It’s upsetting) not just for the family but for a lot of people in Mauritius and abroad. I will make a special move to the Prime Minister as well.”

Gardaí are investigating the alleged sexual assault of a woman in County Donegal.

It happened at 2.30am in the Speer’s Lane area of Letterkenny town.

No further details have been released at this stage.

A search is underway for two inmates of Castlerea Prison in County Roscommon who are unaccounted for.

The pair were last seen in the Grove area, which is a low security, semi-open part of the complex last night.

They were noticed missing at 6.30am this morning.

They have been held at Castlereagh on extradition warrants.

At the moment, a full search of the prison grounds is underway, and it has not yet been determined that the pair have left the area.

Gardaí and the Irish Prison Service are investigating.

A member of John McAreavey’s legal team is to make a complaint to police in Mauritius after photos of Michaela McAreavey’s dead body were published in a newspaper on the island.

Dick Ng Sui Wa described the printing of the photos as an ‘outrage’.

He became aware of the photos after he was contacted by an Irish journalist in Mauritius for his reaction, and he has since been speaking to John McAreavey, who arrived home at the weekend.

Mr Ng Sui Wa said the publication of the images is a catastrophe for a lot of people, in Mauritius and abroad.

He said: “Well this is very revolting, it is very bad. It should not have been done, it is a very bad attempt to hurt her human dignity and I think it is totally senseless.

“I am personally going to report back to the commisioner of police for action.”

Four men are due to appear in court in Galway this morning, charged in connection with a major drug seizure at the weekend.

The men – three of them aged in their 20s and one in his 30s – were arrested after Gardaí uncovered two growhouses, and cannabis plants worth around €730,000 at two addresses in Oranmore and Mervue on Saturday.

All four are due before Galway District Court at around 10.30am.

The Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore will meet with the Irish Ambassador to Mauritius this morning to discuss the publication of photographs of Michaela McAreavey’s dead body.

The images of the murder scene appeared in a Mauritian newspaper yesterday morning.

Mr Gilmore said the aim of the meeting is to bring the Irish Government’s concerns over the printing of the photos of the murder scene of Ms McAreavey to the attention of the authorities in Mauritius at the highest levels and in the most effective way possible.

In total 12 black-and-white images of Michaela, and the scene where she was murdered, were printed yesterday in a newspaper in Mauritius.

On the front page of the paper a photograph appeared of the former teacher, taken after her death – under the headline ‘Exclusive’.

The newly-wed was murdered while on honeymoon at the Legends Hotel in Mauritius last year.

It is still not known who took the photographs or who gave them to the newspaper.

Yesterday, The Taoiseach Enda Kenny described the publication as a “gross affront to human dignity”.

Mr Kenny said the Government will be lodging a formal complaint with the Mauritian Government.

Fine Gael MEP Seán Kelly today expressed his disgust at the publication of photographs featuring the body of Michaela McAreavey in the Mauritian Sunday Times over the weekend.

The photos show the crime scene, the body of Michaela McAreavey and close up shots of her injuries.

In an radio interview with Ger Leddin recorded at today’s Munster final in Cork, the Fine Gael MEP calls on the Mauritian Authorities to “get a hold of the investigation” and condemned the publication of the photos.

He says that if the authorities don’t reopen the case Irish people should consider carefully before going to Mauritius.

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