Bagrat Kudzievi: false identity before two Cork sex assaults

The Georgian karate champion came to Ireland in 2018, lived under a false Polish identity and obtained a social-security number. A jury later convicted him of sexually assaulting an incapacitated 18-year-old in two public locations.

Published 28 July 2026 · Remigration Ireland case ledger

2 countsSexual assault convictions

6 yearsActive sentence

False identityPolish documents used

Appeals filedOutcome not located

Bagrat Kudzievi was not living anonymously because his identity was unknown. He was living under somebody else's national identity. Court reporting records that the Georgian national arrived in Ireland in 2018, used a false Polish identity to obtain a social-security number and was convicted of fraud offences after the documents were uncovered. By then he was also in custody for sexually assaulting a young woman twice during her first college night out.

From a nightclub alcove to a second location

Rachel McElroy was 18 when she went out with college friends in Cork on 19 October 2019. She later chose to waive her anonymity and speak publicly. The sentencing judge said a relatively small amount of alcohol had a significant effect on her, while CCTV showed her falling inside the nightclub, struggling to walk and being in an incapable state.

Within approximately ten minutes of Ms McElroy sitting beside Kudzievi in the smoking area, he had taken her outside to an alcove and sexually assaulted her. Passers-by filmed what was happening rather than intervening. When women shouted at the pair, Kudzievi lifted Ms McElroy, carried her across a bridge and moved her to a more secluded public location.

Nightclub security staff had followed because they were concerned for the young woman's welfare. They found Kudzievi over her with her trousers and underwear pulled down and separated them. Gardaí arrested him. Although he was initially considered too intoxicated to be interviewed, Ms Justice Tara Burns later observed that he had been capable of carrying Ms McElroy without stumbling or falling.

Two sexual-assault convictions—not rape convictions

Kudzievi claimed that the activity was consensual and denied both charges. A Central Criminal Court jury unanimously rejected that defence in late 2021 and convicted him of two counts of sexual assault at separate Cork city-centre locations.

The exact legal category matters. Kudzievi was not convicted of rape, and this report does not relabel the offences. The seriousness recorded by the court lay in exploiting an incapable young woman, moving her after the first assault was interrupted and subjecting her to degrading conduct in public while strangers recorded it.

Ms McElroy told the court that the attacks left her feeling empty, disgusted and without confidence. She dropped out of college before later returning to her studies. Speaking after sentencing, she said publicly that discussing the crime helped her and might encourage other victims to speak.

A Georgian champion behind a Polish identity

Multiple court reports identify Kudzievi as a Georgian national who had been a national karate champion in Georgia and a European championship silver medallist. Detective Garda Donal Daly told the court that Kudzievi came to Ireland in 2018 and lived under a false Polish identity which he used to obtain a social-security number.

Those documents were discovered during the sexual-assault investigation. Kudzievi was convicted of related fraud offences in June 2021. Reports from The Irish Times and BreakingNews.ie also expressly described him as living in Ireland illegally. The sentencing record said he had no other convictions in Ireland or abroad beyond the fraud offending then before the court.

Seven years, with one suspended on a leave-State condition

On 1 December 2021, Ms Justice Burns set a seven-year sentence and suspended the final year, leaving six active years. The term was backdated to 19 October 2019, when Kudzievi entered custody. The suspended portion was conditioned on his leaving Ireland and returning to Georgia following release.

This was a criminal-sentence condition and reported undertaking, not proof that immigration authorities made or executed a deportation order. The reviewed sources do not establish whether Kudzievi was ultimately removed, departed voluntarily or remained outside the State. This case file therefore records the judicial condition without turning it into an unproven enforcement result.

An appeal was filed; its outcome is not established here

On 18 January 2022, the Irish Examiner reported that Kudzievi had lodged appeals against both his conviction and sentence. Searches of the accessible court and news record for this report did not locate a later judgment or reliable report stating how those appeals concluded.

The jury verdict and December 2021 sentence are documented facts, but it would be wrong to describe them as appeal-final without the missing outcome. Any later appellate decision should be added to this ledger if it becomes available.

Case chronology

2018: Kudzievi comes to Ireland from Georgia and lives under a false Polish identity used to obtain a social-security number.
19 October 2019: He sexually assaults Rachel McElroy at two Cork city-centre locations and is taken into custody.
June 2021: He is convicted of fraud offences arising from the false documents uncovered in the investigation.
Late 2021: A Central Criminal Court jury unanimously convicts him on two sexual-assault counts.
1 December 2021: The court imposes seven years with the final year suspended, backdated to October 2019 and conditioned on leaving Ireland after release.
18 January 2022: The Irish Examiner reports that conviction and sentence appeals have been lodged; no outcome was located for this report.

A transparent cost illustration

The Irish Prison Service reported that an available staffed prison space cost an average of €99,072 in 2024, excluding capital expenditure. Applying that later system-wide benchmark to the six-year active portion of Kudzievi's sentence produces a conditional illustration of €594,432.

This is not an invoice, a calculation of marginal cost or an audited total for one prisoner. It assumes six complete years at a constant 2024 rate. The sentence was backdated, while remission, release arrangements and any unreported appellate result could alter actual custody. The figure also excludes Garda investigation, prosecution, courts, legal aid, victim services, post-release supervision and immigration enforcement.

What the record warns about

This case exposes more than one institutional failure point. A Georgian national was able to live under a false Polish identity and obtain a State number before the documents were uncovered through the investigation of an unrelated sexual crime. The criminal court then had to attach departure from Ireland as a condition of suspending the final year, while the public record reviewed here supplies no confirmation that departure was enforced.

The strongest warning does not require exaggeration: false identity, unlawful residence and fraud were followed by two unanimous sexual-assault convictions and a six-year active sentence. The remaining unanswered questions—the appeal result and whether the leave-State condition was carried out—should be treated as gaps to be closed, not opportunities to invent certainty.