Man held in jail until identity is determined

An African national has spent the past 10 days in Cork Prison because details of his identity remain a mystery, but his solicitor said yesterday the man could not be kept in prison because nobody knows who he is.

The accused man came to the attention of the authorities on September 4 when he allegedly stole a €10 pair of trousers at Penney’s.

Despite the low value of the property allegedly stolen, he has been in custody since that date on a second charge arising out of his arrest on the same date.

He was charged with failing to produce on demand to a garda a valid passport or equivalent documentation to establish his identity and nationality as required by a non-national.

The name under which the accused man was originally prosecuted was Geoffrey Toetenal, aged 29. Since then he has told Garda Joseph Dillon that this is an incorrect name and his correct name is Alao Razack.

Frank Buttimer, solicitor, said the French-speaking African comes from the Republic of Benin. Yesterday’s proceedings at Cork District Court were translated for the defendant by a French interpreter.

Garda Dillon said gardaí had exhausted all avenues to establish his identity, including Interpol and the examination of his fingerprints on an a database.

Garda Dillon said when the original Toetenal identity did not check out, the accused admitted it was not a correct name and gave the Razack address in its place.

The guard said this name did not show up on civil or criminal databanks. The immigration authorities had no match for that identity.

The judge said it was in the defendant’s best interests to co-operate fully with the investigation into his identity. He remanded him in custody for a further week until September 22, on the application of Inspector Bill Duane.