Gardaí investigating alleged deception by a University College Dublin (UCD) student are examining seized electronic devices, including a burner phone, to determine when a photo purportedly showing a sexual assault was taken.
Detectives are trying to understand the origins of alleged image-based sexual assault material sent to hundreds of students and staff at the university. They are hopeful an examination of phones and computers may provide vital evidence.
A number of devices, including the burner phone, have been seized as part of the investigation since it began early last year. Gardaí are examining them as part of their efforts to establish when the alleged sexual assault photograph was taken, who took it and who circulated it to people using the college’s email system.
There are two strands to the investigation, with one focused on the student’s alleged deception of UCD, including in a court challenge she has taken.
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The other centres on how the image of the woman, naked, bruised and apparently unconscious, was taken and sent to more than 170 academic staff and students last year. The investigation began when UCD realised the image had been distributed to people using the college’s email system.
A woman in her 20s was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of deceiving UCD and was released without charge on Wednesday.
A file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The woman claimed to UCD that she had been raped by a fellow student in 2023 while she was studying medicine and at a party attended by medical students.
In April of last year, two years after the alleged rape, the woman said she was made aware that image-based sexual assault material of her had been circulated to people using UCD’s email system.
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At the end of 2025, the image was sent by an Irish phone number into a medicine year-group’s WhatsApp group chat of nearly 300 students, alongside an explicit and threatening message.
Gardaí are attempting to verify the claim that the perpetrator of the rape alleged by the woman, or accomplices, were responsible for the original and subsequent distributions of the image.
They are also working to locate the device from which the emails were sent. The images were originally distributed through a Proton Mail account, an encrypted email service which makes tracing the origins of emails challenging for law enforcement.
Proton AG can be legally compelled to disclose user information under Swiss law.
The woman arrested for the alleged deception of UCD was questioned about the veracity of documents relating to important medical appointments, which were presented as evidence in a challenge to UCD in the courts. It is also understood they were submitted to prove the woman’s claim she was raped in 2023 and to illustrate the ordeal she faced in the following weeks and months.
She believes UCD should have done more to ensure she advanced during her studies, despite failing exams. This led to her taking a legal action against the Dublin university.
Gardaí have checked the background of those documents and cross-checked them with the woman’s movements and travel plans on the same dates as these appointments. Apparent discrepancies have emerged and now the woman faces an allegation that she deceived the college, though no findings have been arrived at and she faces no charges.
