Court hears rapist ordered to leave Ireland returned within weeks after changing his name
A convicted rapist left the country after he was the subject of a ministerial removal order - only to return within weeks having changed his name.
Ioan Munteanu, of 2 Mill Road in Millstreet in Co Cork, was convicted of rape in Manchester Crown Court on June 25, 2004 and sentenced to six years in prison.
After his release, he moved to Ireland and, now aged 34 and father to three children, had been working with a waste disposal company near Cork City.
He was arrested on December 30 and today appeared before Macroom District Court, where he pleaded guilty to failing to provide information to gardaí, including his address, as required by the Sex Offenders Act 2001.
The court heard that Mr Munteanu - who now goes by the name of Ioan Kovacs - had failed to comply in "unusual circumstances".
Judge James McNulty said Mr Munteanu had been the subject of a five-year Ministerial removal order in 2014 and had left the jurisdiction voluntarily, returning to Romania.
He recalled the court had been told that Mr Munteanu had then returned to Ireland just seven days later, although the defendant's barrister, Donal O'Sullivan, said his client had returned here within a matter of weeks.
Regarding that previous court appearance following his arrest on December 30, Judge McNulty said one garda concern had been that Mr Munteanu would have to surrender his passport if granted bail.
"He candidly admitted that on his return to Romania he had changed his name and had secured a new passport in that name," the Judge recalled.
Mr O'Sullivan said that while his client had breached the Ministerial removal order, that was not a criminal offence.
He also said that unless that order was enforced within two years of being issued, it could not be enforced now unless the Minister was satisfied that the same conditions which prompted it to be issued in the first place still applied.
Mr O'Sullivan said the breach of the removal order was an administrative matter that the Department of Justice would have to address.
"It may not be enforceable at this stage," he said.
The court heard Mr Munteanu had 29 previous convictions between 2004 and 2013, mainly for road traffic offences but including the rape conviction in Manchester, and a six month jail sentence, suspended, handed down in Sligo District Court in January 2012 for not complying with terms of the Sex Offenders Act such as notifying gardaí of his address.
In December 2011 at Macroom District Court he was convicted of failing to inform his employer of a sexual offence conviction and given a six-month jail sentence, also suspended.
Judge McNulty sentenced him to nine months in prison. Mr Munteanu lodged an appeal on his own bond of €2,000 and an independent surety of €3,000, one-third in cash. Bail conditions were imposed including that he surrender his passport.
The Judge also said Mr Munteanu's new name should be recorded by the courts and gardaí.
