Man charged with four counts of assault on four 'traumatised' children in Wicklow
- Four children, aged between 3 and 11, found with injuries that suggested they had been strangled.
- Man ran to a relative's house to say that the children were dead.
- A man in his mid-30s is arrested.
- Mother of the children not believed to have been in house during alleged assault
- Hospital discharges the four children who are "fine", but "traumatised".
- Man charged with four counts of assault on four children.
Gardaí have charged a 35-year-old man with four counts of assault causing harm to four children.
Stephen Hartnett with an address at Kilpoole, Wicklow, appeared before a special sitting of Bray District Court tonight.
Gardaí said Mr Hartnett made no reply when he was charged and his solicitor, Kieran Conway, said his client would not be applying for bail.
Mr Hartnett will be remanded in custody to appear before Cloverhill District Court next Thursday, June 9.
Gardaí have said that the man in his mid 30s arrested in connection with the "serious assault", is due to appear at a special sitting of Bray District Court at 9pm tonight.
Four children who were assaulted at their home in Blainroe, Co Wicklow have been discharged from hospital, parish priest Reverend Donal Roche has said.
Reverend Donal Roche said the children - two boys and two girls, aged between three and 11 years - were now "fine" after they sustained injuries on Friday evening that suggested they had been strangled.
"They are physically going to be OK - obviously they are traumatised about what has happened and there is a lot of healing to be done but they have been discharged," he said.
A man in his mid-30s remains in police custody, Gardaí have confirmed.
It is being reported that the mother of the children was not in the house while the alleged assault happened.
A Co Wicklow community is in shock after a man was arrested in connection to the serious assault of four children.
The arrest was made yesterday at Blainroe shortly after 7.30pm.
Gardaí and Emergency services attended the scene after the four children were discovered in the house in a serious condition.
The children are believed to be aged between three and 11, and it is being reported that they were strangled.
They are expected to be discharged from hospital this evening.
It is reported that a man ran to a relative's house close by, and said that he thought the children were dead after being suffocated.
However, emergency services arrived to find them unconscious but alive, before they were taken to Tallaght Hospital. Two were airlifted.
The man, aged in his mid 30’s, was arrested a short time later and is currently detained at Wicklow Garda Station under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984.
The scene has been preserved for a technical examination.
Councillor Irene Winters says the community is in shock.
She said: "They're all so upset and distressed to think that any family would be undergoing trauma like that.
"People's concerns and their thoughts and prayers are with the family involved and hopefully the people involved will make a full recovery.
"I suppose they are just concerned that maybe there was something that could be done that we hadn't done as a community."
Reverend Jack Kinkead, priest of Wicklow Parish Church, said he believed that the incident happened in a rural area outside Wicklow town which is popular with tourists.
"Towards the coast there would be areas where people come to for holiday cottages and that sort of thing. There's coast, there's farmland, there's mountains."
He added that it was not an especially wealthy area but that it was "lovely".
