Killer and rapist Ian Horgan faces second charge as he is remanded in custody

The court heard today that Mr Horgan was arrested last week in Cork city

A man arrested in connection with an alleged breach of the Sex Offenders Act 2001 has been remanded in continued custody.

Ian Horgan, 37, was arrested last week and had appeared before Clonakilty District Court on foot of the execution of a bench warrant. He appeared again before Bantry District Court on Thursday in front of Judge James McNulty.

The court heard a second charge has now been levelled against Mr Horgan, who appeared in court and was represented by his solicitor Sean Cahill. The new charge is that he is alleged to have failed to notify gardaí of a change of address.

This, the court heard, was in breach of the Sex Offenders Act 2001. This was an additional charge to the first charge that was, Judge McNulty said, “of some vintage”.

He was referring to the fact that Mr Horgan, with an address at 53 Byrne Avenue, Prospect in County Limerick has been accused of applying to open an account on the Tinder dating app between May 24 and 31 last year using the alias ‘Cian’.

Gardaí allege that in doing so he was in contravention of the Sex Offenders Act 2001. Mr Horgan has claimed the use of the name Cian was a simple typo and not the creation of an alias.

At a hearing in October 2021, a court was told Mr Horgan had lost the phone he used to apply for the Tinder account. The State is in the process of officially requesting data from Tinder in relation to the application which must go through the US Justice Department and could take up to eight months to complete.

The court was reminded that an arrest warrant had been issued in May for Mr Horgan when he failed to appear at Macroom District Court in connection with the alleged breach of the Sex Offenders Act 2001.

The court heard on Thursday that he was arrested last week in Cork city. No further details of his arrest were provided.

Mr Horgan was today remanded in continued custody, by consent, until he is due to appear again in court in Clonakilty District Court on August 18.