Woman arrested for alleged deception also in legal dispute with UCD

A woman arrested on Tuesday for alleged deception against a third-level institution is understood to be in a legal dispute with University College Dublin (UCD).

Gardaí confirmed a woman in her 20s was being held in custody at a south Dublin Garda station yesterday. She was arrested ‘for alleged deception contrary to the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001 against a third level institution’.

A search resulted in the seizure of a number of electronic devices as part of an investigation. The offence of deception relates to a ‘person who dishonestly, with the intention of making a gain for themselves or another, or of causing loss to another, by any deception induces another to do or refrain from doing an act’.

The arrest is understood to be related to a medical student who took action against UCD after she claimed the college had barred her academic progression into her third year, after she was raped by a fellow student.

The woman claimed to have been drugged and raped at a gathering in February 2023, causing her to become pregnant and leading to a pause in her studies since shortly after the alleged rape.

She said she did not report it to gardaí at the time as she feared she would not be believed. The student had failed three modules in the first semester of her second year and was allowed to resit them along with her second semester exams in May 2023.

After the alleged rape, the student sat some of her May exams, failed others and missed three while absent to have an abortion. She later got extenuating circumstances grades in six modules.

She took a High Court challenge against UCD’s requirement that she remediate six incomplete modules with an academic performance plan, instead wanting to redo them while undertaking the third year of her degree at the same time.

Her case centred on the assertion that UCD failed to make adequate allowances for her after the alleged assault, and that the pregnancy forced her to choose between continuing her studies and accessing healthcare.

The student also told the media a photo taken without her knowledge of her ‘naked, bruised body’ after the alleged rape had been sent anonymously to over 170 staff email accounts in UCD in 2025.

Last November, the image was shared to a WhatsApp group of 300 UCD students, including the woman in question. The emails came from an encrypted email service that could not be traced at the time. The Whatsapp message came from an anonymised number.

Her case against UCD was dismissed this February when High Court judge Marguerite Bolger sided with UCD on all grounds, finding the solutions it offered to help her complete the failed modules with the aid of academic mentors, and other supports, were ‘entirely lawful and proper’.

Ms Bolger said UCD could not have addressed the student’s situation ‘in any way other than as they did’, and that UCD ‘have obligations about the plaintiff’s workload and the quality and integrity of her degree’.

The student appealed the ruling to the Court of Appeal which, on Tuesday, reserved judgment until the next legal term.

During the appeal, her counsel, Ciarán Craven, said the case hinged on whether UCD applied its academic regulations after granting the extenuating circumstances grades.

He argued that by awarding the grades, UCD had ‘reset the clock’ on her performance and should not have used her earlier record to decide on an academic plan she would need to follow before progressing further in her course.

He said she should have been let progress to her third year, and if UCD was entitled to impose such a plan, it failed to properly consult her before doing so.

Under UCD’s regulations, students are limited to taking modules worth a total of 40 credits per trimester, with a module typically consisting of five credits.

Mr Craven said modules being remediated after being granted a special grade are not subject to this limit.

UCD said the workload was ‘not sustainable’, and where ‘a student’s workload is unsustainable, it may, following appropriate consultation with the student, require that the student’s workload be reduced to sustainable levels’.

He said no such consultation with his client had taken place.