Saturday September 4 2010
British police are to withdraw charges against a Scotsman wanted in Thailand on two charges of rape after discovering they can no longer put together a case against him.
Police in Northumbria have admitted that now ten years on they can no longer present sufficient evidence against George Hoolahan, 60, who was charged with raping two 18-yr-old woman in Whitley Bay in 1999.
George Hoolahan waiting for his business meeting at the Victoria Bar
A police spokesman said today: ‘A Northumbria Police spokesman said: ‘The Crown Prosecution Service has issued a notice of discontinuance in this case and the warrant is in the process of being withdrawn.’
And a CPS spokesman said: ”It is only possible for the CPS to serve a notice of discontinuance on a defendant if we know his or her whereabouts. Following new information about where Mr. Hoolahan was residing and a further review of the case, it has been concluded that there is insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.’
Two weeks ago Hoolahan from Govan was tracked down to Bangkok where he was running a business refurbishing condominiums.
He said at the time: ‘It was only a date rape kind of thing’. ‘These girls were a couple of junkies. I was out with friends drinking and these two girls picked me up.
He told the Sunday Mail’ They were on drugs and we went back to my room. There were people in the next room and there was no shouting or bawling.
‘It was a bit of a party. They went away the next day and they were staying in a homeless unit and my understanding is that if they were on drugs they would have been thrown out. So they blamed me.
But Northumbria Police put him at No 2 on their list of most wanted men.
The Sunday Mail also reported that there was another warrant out for Hoolahan’s arrest for fraud of just under £100,000 from the Glasgow company ‘Fuel Negotiators’.
Authors Note: The CPS stuff sounds, er well very civil service-ish. They can only withdrawn charges if they find the criminals? Actually they have not found him.
Hoolahan top centre featuring in Northumbria Police’s ‘Operation Turn up’
FACE TO FACE WITH A HUNTED RAPIST IN BANGKOK
FROM ANDREW DRUMMOND
August 21 2010
This is George Hoolahan. He has been on the run for over 11 years on two charges of rape but today we can reveal that far from living in fear of the law he has been living it up in the fleshpots of Thailand.
The 60-yr-old from Govan, Glasgow, has been charged with drugging and raping two eighteen year old girls in the north eastern resort of Whitley Bay, North Tyneside.
But he fled bail in July 1999 and never turned up for his committal for trial at Tyneside Magistrates Courts.
For over ten years he has been on Northumbrian Police’s ‘Most Wanted’ list and several publicity drives have been fruitless.
But we caught up with Hoolahan in a Bangkok ‘beer bar’ after we offered to employ him as a ‘consultant’ in his new chosen career fitting out expensive penthouses for Bangkok’s elite.
His full name is George Bernard Murray Hoolahan and Northumbrian Police failed to catch him in one exercise called ‘Operation Turn Up’, though hundreds of other wanted men were either arrested or gave themselves in.
After Operation Turn Up, Northumbria’s Chief Constable said in October 26th: ‘Absconders who are still out there should know that any effort to get away simply delays the inevitability of going to court.’ Hoolahan was the second in the top five.
Nor did Hoolahan turn up when Northumbrian Police issued another appeal in 2008 with Hoolahan now topping a list of 833 accused of committing crimes who had absconded on bail.
And indeed why should he? Hoolahan merely stopped using his surname, calling himself either George Murray, or George Bernard to potential clients, while at night he cruised the sex bars of Bangkok’s Soi Cowboy.
He had just fled owing rent on his apartment at No 4 Sukhsan Mansion (Happy Mansion) in Sukhumvit’s Soi 23, Bangkok, the same street as Soi Cowboy, when we called.
But we lured him to a meeting on the promise of lucrative work renovating a million dollar condominium in Bangkok’s upmarket central Sukhumvit area by contacting him through his email.
georgehoolahan01After arranging to meet him at the Victoria bar off Bangkok’s Sukhumvit Road Hoolahan turned up freshly showered and wearing white trousers and a pink polo shirt bearing a machine gun logo bearing the motif MP5 Navy equipment of the Seal 52.
But we told him the deal was off after the news of the manhunt for him had been leaked to Bangkok. When we asked him if he was wanted by police in Newcastle he replied: ‘Aye. But that’s all cleared up now. It was only a date rape kind of thing.’
A spokesman for Northumbria Police said: ‘I can confirm that the named individual has an outstanding warrant against him. Any information on his location should be given to police at the earliest opportunity’.
