A taxi driver rape suspect was arrested at Dublin Airport when he arrived back in Ireland after fleeing from gardai who were hunting him for a brutal sexual assault.

The suspect had earlier left the country for a number of weeks after he allegedly carried out the attack of a young woman who was attacked after attending a D4 Christmas party on the morning of December 9.

Officers today announced details of the arrest of the Tallaght based south Asian taxi driver who was questioned for a number of hours at Irishtown Garda Station last Thursday before being released without charge on Friday.

The Tallaght based suspect who is aged in his 30’s has “family ties” in Ireland and has been living in the Tallaght area for a number of years.

A file on the case will be now be sent to the DPP but sources say that the taxi driver claims that he did not rape the 22-year-old victim.

However gardai are not looking for anyone else in relation to the rape.

After he fled Ireland in the aftermath of the rape, gardai raided his Tallaght home and carried out forensic examinations of the property.

The taxi in which the 22-year-old woman was attacked in the early hours of Sunday morning, December 9, has also been located, seized and forensically examined by officers.

The 22-year-old female victim suffered most of her ordeal while the taxi she was in was parked at Emmet Street in Dublin’s north inner city between 2am and 3am on December 9.

Witnesses came forward after investigating gardaí issued an appeal for people who may have seen her in the Mountjoy Square area in Dublin's north inner city in the immediate aftermath of her horror ordeal and they told gardai that she was in a very distressed state.

A senior source said that the woman was raped three times in the vehicle between the hours of 12.43am and 2.14am on Sunday, December 9.

The woman –aged 22 - attended a Christmas party in a Ballsbridge hotel in Dublin 4 on the night.

She has told detectives she hailed a taxi from the venue, but got out of the car after she became unwell in the Shelbourne Road area.

She believes she got into another taxi in the Dublin 4 area and officers think she was raped in this vehicle and ended up in Mountjoy Square, in Dublin's north inner city.

The “highly respected” young woman made a complaint at Mountjoy Garda station on Monday, December 9, but because of where the sexual assaults against her were originally alleged to have happened, the case is being investigated by officers from Irishtown Garda Station.

After attending Mountjoy Garda Station, the 22-year-old was brought to the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit at the Rotunda Hospital where examinations confirmed that the woman had been brutally sexually assaulted.

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