A WOMAN who waited more than 20 years for the man charged with raping her to be tried was told only last year that the State had abandoned the prosecution.
The Garda has told her that her original statement about the rape is "not available", and a medical report and other files on the case appear to be missing.
The woman, Ms Maria Amos, is petitioning the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, seeking an investigation into the case.
The alleged rape with which the man was charged took place in 1972 in a north Dublin suburb. The man was charged later that year at Kilmainham District Court and Ms Amos identified him in court.
The man was granted bail and Ms Amos was later told by gardai that he then absconded to Britain and could not be traced. However, Ms Amos saw or encountered him on a number of occasions in Dublin - at one stage he spoke to her and asked her to drop the complaint. In 1976, Ms Amos says, she informed gardai of one sighting of her attacker in Dublin, and, told them where they could find the man.
Last year, the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions wrote to the woman's solicitors saying that the State entered a nolle prosequi in the case in 1977.
The office of the DPP - which is not obliged to explain why charges are dropped - told The Irish Times it had no comment to make on the case.
A Garda source said there was no doubt that Ms Amos was raped as she claimed there was sufficient evidence to bring the charge. But the source said that despite the fact that Ms Amos had since reported the man's whereabouts in the city, there was nothing that could now be done because the nolle prosequi had been entered.
A Garda superintendent has also informed Ms Amos's solicitors in writing that her original statement is "not available".
Ms Amos said she had seen reports of a number of cases, particularly notorious cases of child sexual abuse, where the charges stretched back to the 1960s. She could not understand why no action could be taken in her case.
Ms Amos asked the DPP's office toe explain what had happened last year. In a short reply the office said that "from both the legal and the practical viewpoints it would not now be possible to initiate a new prosecution".
Ms Olive Braiden, director of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, said that while charges were not preferred in many rape cases, it was unusual" for a man to be charged and then for the trial not to go ahead.
In her petition to the Minister, drawn up by a lawyer acting without a fee, Ms Amos says she has been "severely failed" by the criminal justice system and asks for a judge to be appointed to investigate the case.