Gardaí are working with Interpol, the international police organisation, in a bid to determine the identity of an elderly man who was arrested on suspicion of using the name of a baby who died in 1953 to apply for a passport in Cork.
Last Friday, the man appeared before Cork District Court where he was charged in the name of Philip Frank Morris, of no fixed address, with a date of birth of December 1952.
He had been arrested at the Passport Office in Cork the previous day.
The accused was charged with two offences relating to providing false or misleading information in order to obtain a passport.
Detective Garda Padraic Hanley, of the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, told the court that the man allegedly used the name of a baby, Philip Frank Morris, who was born in December 1952 but subsequently died to apply for a passport.
Det Gda Hanley said that when questioned the man said he was living in Ireland and needed the passport to leave the country.
The man did not cooperate with officers in any way, Det Gda Hanley added.
He said the man held an Irish passport for three decades but only recently obtained a PPS number.
Judge Olann Kelleher remanded the man, named as Philip Morris, 70, in custody until today.
In court today, Det Gda Hanley said that gardaí "are making enquiries internally and with Interpol".
He told Judge Kelleher that they had spoken to the brother of the late Philip Morris who died in 1953 when he was four months old.
"We do not know who this gentleman is. ... We have a raft of enquiries going on at this stage. He [the defendant] is not Philip Frank Morris."
Det Gda Hanley said that it was impossible to give a timeline as to when the identity of the person in custody would become known and that further charges could be brought in the case.
Defence solicitor Frank Buttimer said that his client was not "in the first flush of youth" in terms of a further remand in custody in relation to the charges.
The man, who is known only as Frank Morris, appeared in court by video link from Cork Prison and did not speak during the brief hearing.
Judge Kelleher remanded him in custody to appear before Cork District Court on 3 October.
