Six women and five men have been remanded on bail to appear before the Central Criminal Court for trial, on charges of more than 200 counts of rape, sexual assault and neglect of children.

The 11 accused persons, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were brought before a court yesterday and served with a completed book of evidence and returned for trial.

The accused between them face 220 offences in total which are alleged to have occurred on dates between 2014 and 2016.

The charges before the court are 20 counts of child neglect/cruelty, 78 counts of child sexual exploitation, 26 counts of raping a child, and 96 counts of sexually assaulting a child.

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Each evidence book is three volumes and approximately 3,000 pages in length.

A Garda inspector made an application before the court to have each of the 11 accused returned for trial. The inspector said the DPP had “consented” to each of the accused being sent for trial to the “current sittings” of the Central Criminal Court.

The judge advised each accused that they had 14 days from the date of the hearing to inform the State of any persons they may seek to call upon to act as an alibi witness at their trial.

Each of the 11 accused stood up in the body of the court when their names were called, but they did not speak during the proceedings.

The judge said there were strict reporting restrictions in place to prevent identification of the alleged victims.

“I want to make sure the children are not identified,” the judge added.

Each accused was granted free legal aid and the court granted 11 separate applications that they each be provided with a solicitor and two legal counsel to represent them at trial.

The 11 accused were arrested by gardaí following a two-year-long investigation led by specially trained gardaí attached to the Garda National Protective Services Bureau.

Each of the accused was remanded on bail to the current sessions of the Central Criminal Court.

Their bail conditions state each of them must not contact the alleged victims either directly or indirectly, or via social media. They must also surrender their passports and not apply for new travel documents.

They must sign on weekly at different garda stations and notify gardaí of any change in their address. Additionally, they must be available to gardaí at all times via a charged and credited mobile telephone number.

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