ENYA NEWS

Garda hunt for missing Enya stalker

Herald Ireland, By Eimear Cotter and Kevin Doyle February 26, 2009

The man accused of stalking singer Enya has gone missing, a judge has been told.

Gardai have been ordered to arrest the alleged stalker after he failed to turn up in court on the charges.

Only recently on The Late Late Show, Enya told of the toll being the victim of a stalker in the past has taken on her.

Roger Jones (62) is alleged to be the latest in a line of men to terrorise the reclusive singer/songwriter at her Dalkey castle. He failed to appear at Dun Laoghaire Court to answer the charge. Gardai claim that Roger Jones harassed Enya (47) at her home between March and July last year.

He was expected to appear in court this week but it has now emerged that he was only last seen before Christmas.

The development is likely to cause grave concern for the millionaire singer who has been the victim of several stalkers in the past.

In 2005, she was forced to hide in a panic room for several hours after a man broke into her home and in 1997 an Italian man stabbed himself outside her parents' pub in Donegal.

The State Solicitor told the court that Roger Jones is registered as an out-patient with Newcastle Hospital in Co Wicklow, and is required to attend the hospital a number of times each week.

The court heard that Garda Declan Hartley checked Jones' attendance at out-patient services with hospital administrators and the defendant has not attended at the hospital since December 23 last.

The charge against Jones says that he stalked the singer, whose real name is Eithne Brennan, on unknown dates between March 5 and July 30 last year.

The court previously heard that Jones, with an address at Grand Parade, West Hoe, Plymouth, in the UK, spent part of November and December 2008 as an involuntary patient in Newcastle Hospital, but discharged himself from the hospital in mid-December.

He was living in a homeless shelter on James Street, Dublin 8.

Defence solicitor Ronnie Lynam said that he had no instructions from his client.

REPORTS

He said there are a number of medical reports on file for Jones. The defendant's fitness to plead still needs to be resolved.

Judge Clare Leonard said Jones is not attending hospital for his medical appointments and she had no choice but to issue a bench warrant.

It has been reported that Enya has spent more than €250,000 on her personal security after several incidents dating back over a decade

In a rare interview last October, she said: “Anyone in the street can have a stalker. It's not because I'm famous, but because I'm more private than most celebrities.”

In 2005, a man broke into her castle, tied up a maid and then went looking for the singer.

Terrified Enya was forced to lock herself into a panic room and sound an alarm before waiting for two agonising hours until the intruder fled.

PROWLER

A week later, another prowler broke into the grounds |but failed to get into the building.

In 1997, an Italian man with a picture of Enya tied around his neck walked trance-like around Dublin before eventually stabbing himself outside the pub in Donegal owned by Enya’s parents

After the break-ins, Enya set up systems to protect herself. “Now, when I start getting letters, I have to go to the police and say this person is going to cause problems, and that's it,” she explained.

5th March 2009