System linked assaults

A POWERFUL computer system gave gardaí the breakthrough on this string of sexual assaults.

The Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System (ViCLAS) found links between 15 sexual assaults (including two attempted assaults) in Cavan and Carlow over a two-year period.

“It’s a sophisticated bit of software. It can take many thousands of incidents and see if there are any linkages, that would not be possible to see manually,” explained Detective Superintendent John McCann of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

He said the software uses behaviour analysis, the modus operandi of the perpetrator, descriptions of the perpetrator and geographic profiling to establish any possible connections.

It can look for comparisons for even the smallest details, including, as in this case, earrings and wedding bands, worn by the attacker.

Det Supt McCann said they were confident from the analysis that one individual was behind the assaults.

He said a ViCLAS booklet was sent out to all gardaí. When investigating a sexual assault or other serious crimes, they complete a electronic form and return it to the bureau, where it is entered onto the ViCLAS database.

He said it proved to be of 1“significant benefit” in serious crime investigation since launch in May 2005.

ViCLAS was created by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the 1990s, who trained Irish officers when the system was set up here.