Senior gardaí realised serious trouble may be afoot on Monday morning as they were reading their “critical incident report”.

The daily report outlines significant alleged crimes that had taken place over the previous 24 hours.

An Irish girl, aged 10 years, in the care of the State’s child and family agency Tusla had alleged she had been sexually assaulted by a foreign man, aged 26.

The alleged assault had taken place at the entrance to the old Citywest hotel complex in west Dublin, now home to an accommodation centre for international protection applicants (IPAS) and Ukrainians.

The entrance to the centre off Garter Lane in Saggart was sealed off as a crime scene.

The first concern was for the welfare of the girl and arresting the suspect for questioning, which occurred very quickly.

But there were other fears: senior gardaí were immediately concerned that serious violence might flare when details of the alleged attack became public.

Those concerns were grounded specifically in the fact that the case involved a foreign-born adult male as a suspect and a young Irish girl as the victim of the alleged sexual assault.

Early on Monday morning photographs of the crime scene were shared on messaging apps and social media.

News of the alleged attack was seized upon by members of the far right and spread at pace on their networks.

Messages were shared by people such as British far-right figure Tommy Robinson (whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) and the man he claims pays his legal fees, billionaire Elon Musk, owner of social media network X, formerly Twitter.