An Irish student has spent almost three weeks locked up in Senegal after a prank went wrong, it was revealed today.
Patrick Devine, from Dunfanaghy in Co Donegal, was arrested last month after dropping his trousers and 'pulling a mooner’ outside the home of one of the country's governors in Saint Louis.
The Queen's University Belfast engineering student had travelled to the African state earlier this summer in a group from the Teaching and Projects Abroad scheme to work with street children.
It is understood the 19-year-old pulled the stunt as part of a series of dares made up by members of the TPA group.
The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed staff from the embassy in neighbouring Nigeria had been working to secure his release.
Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern said that officials were doing everything possible to help the Co Donegal man.
The minister was informed about the incident while he was on holiday in France last month.
He said: ‘It is a very unfortunate case. There is a judicial process in train now. Staff in the department are doing their level best and we are also liaising with EU member states and other countries who have embassies in Senegal’.
Mr Devine was arrested on 27 July after a local man saw the prank and held him and other members of the group until police arrived.
He has been in custody since and after several days in police cells he was moved to the prison La Maison de la Correction.
The TPA group said efforts were going on behind the scenes to try to secure his release.
It is the third spot of trouble the student suffered on his volunteering trip to Senegal. He suffered a bout of chicken pox and had to have part of a toe amputated after a severe infection.
