Gardaí in Cork are to prepare a file for the DPP after releasing without charge at the weekend a young man and woman for questioning about a knife attack on a woman in the city in March.
Detectives arrested the 21-year-old man and 20-year-old-woman at a house in the Tower area of Blarney at 7.30am on Friday morning for questioning about the knife attack and other crimes.
The knife attack happened when a 29-year-old woman was parking her car at Ardfallen Terrace off Friar St in the south inner city part of Cork at around 11.30am on March 23rd last.
The woman had just got out of her car when a lone assailant approached her armed with a Stanley knife or similar type blade and slashed her a number of times with the blade across the face.
The woman was rushed by ambulance to Cork University Hospital where she underwent emergency surgery for what one garda source described as “horrific injuries” to her face.
Gardaí believe the incident was linked to a row, which broke out on Drawbridge Street in the city centre on March 16th between two women in their 20s, in which one alleged she was assaulted.
Both the man and the woman were arrested on Friday under Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act, which allowed gardaí detain suspects for up to seven days before having to be released or charged.
Gardaí brought the man to Togher Garda Station where they questioned him until 10pm on Saturday night when he was released without charge, while the woman was released from the Bridewell at 11pm.
A Garda spokesman confirmed that file would now be prepared for the DPP in respect of both the man and woman while the garda investigation into the assault on Ardfallen Terrace would continue.
Gardaí believe the attack on the woman on March 23rd was one of a number of assaults in Cork city and county carried out by members of an organised criminal gang operating on Leeside.
