A 23-year-old man has appeared in court after he was arrested by gardaí at Dublin Port on Saturday.
Eamon Harrison, with an address in Mayobridge, Co Down appeared before Dublin District Court on Saturday on foot of a bench warrant for assault and criminal damage.
Detective Patrick Flood from the Garda National Immigration Bureau said Mr Harrison was arrested at 1.15pm on a truck coming off an Irish ferry at Dublin Port on Saturday and brought to Store Street Garda station where he was charged.
Detective Flood said the young man, who is a lorry driver, made no reply to the charges. Mr Harrison appeared in court wearing a grey t-shirt and dark trousers.
Detective Flood said he had concerns that if Mr Harrison was granted bail he would fail to appear at the next court appearance. He said Mr Harrison had spent the last three days in France and had organised a special route to come back into the country.
He said Mr Harrison had disposed of a mobile phone prior to travelling to Ireland and the phone had yet to be recovered.
He said he also believes Mr Harrison was involved in the smuggling of beer in the UK and that he failed to appear before a German court in recent months in relation to an incident.
Bail
Mr Harrison's solicitor said his family were present in court and that an aunt who lived in Clogher, Co Louth was willing to provide an address for him there in order to sign on.
The solicitor said Mr Harrison has ADHD and had a special needs assistant in school and that upon leaving school he became a lorry driver.
She said his parents were willing to lodge €1,000 in order to secure bail for their son and they are “very concerned” for him “given his mental health problems”.
The solicitor said there may be "heightened tensions over the last week given what has happened" and that Mr Harrison was not someone who was "generally comes before the court". She said the incident in Germany was a road traffic accident and that Mr Harrison doesn't speak German and wasn't aware of any court case.
The solicitor also said Mr Harrison had planned to make himself available to gardaí, to assist with an investigation in the North.
Detective Flood said that giving information to the gardaí, didn’t match up with Mr Harrison’s disposal of a mobile phone, “his behaviour and the behaviour of his parents”.
Judge Anthony Halpin refused Mr Harrison bail and remanded him in custody until October 30th, when he is due to appear before Cloverhill District Court at 10.30am.
Judge Halpin granted Mr Harrison legal aid and a request was also made that he receive medical attention in relation to his mental health issues.
