A court was told the Australian woman found on a Dublin street has a history of psychiatric issues. Source: AAP
THE young Australian woman found wandering in a distressed state on a Dublin street was reportedly a drifter who was convicted several times in Queensland and used up to 40 aliases.
The woman, known as Samantha, is being cared for by Irish health workers after a court heard she had a history of psychiatric issues and her life would be at risk if she was released.
The 25-year-old is believed to have lived in NSW and Queensland where she was convicted on deception charges.
Court documents reveal that on September 15, 2010, Samantha was convicted in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on two charges of making false representations, one charge of possession of a thing with intent to forge documents and one charge of contravening directions.
If she reoffended in the following 12 months she would have been fined $500.
Less than a month later, on October 11, she was convicted of further false representation offences.
At the time, her address was listed as Douglas Park, west of Sydney.
A Douglas Park neighbour on Thursday said Samantha was lovely, but had issues.
"But she was always a bit different, I thought maybe she was impaired but I didn't know how to ask that," Jessie Blackwell told Network Ten.
"She was always drifting around."
She lived for a period at the home of Pastor Brad Blacker and his family after she asked to join his Blackheath Baptist Church in the Blue Mountains in February 2011.
Samantha told him her name was Dakota and that she was 14 and opened up about some "serious allegations about what happened in the past" and was fearful about going home, he told the ABC.
After taking her in, Pastor Blacker said Samantha developed a strong emotional dependency on his wife.
"She loved that emotional dependency which for us showed there must be some really serious issues."
He followed her online since 2011 and saw her using various names and identities.
Pastor Blacker said he was shocked to see she had been the subject of such intrigue in Ireland since being discovered outside the Dublin GPO in O'Connell Street on October 10.
After initially fearing she may have been a teenage victim of sex trafficking and receiving no leads for nearly a month, Irish police released a photo of her this week.
They were quickly contacted by family connections in county Tipperary who confirmed she was an Australian and had been staying with them.
"We can now confirm that the lady was not trafficked here and had in fact travelled here some months ago," a senior police officer said according to the Irish Independent newspaper.
The Independent reports that she had stayed with her mother's former boyfriend Joe Brennan, who lives in the town of Clonmel in Tipperary.
Irish police contacted their Australian counterparts who verified her identity and her brushes with the law.
A High Court judge in Dublin on Wednesday ruled that an initial care order imposed when it was believed the woman was a minor should stay in place until a further hearing on Thursday morning to give medics a chance to further assess her condition.
A lawyer for the woman's court-appointed guardian told the court: "If the consequences of today is that door is open and this vulnerable person walks out on the street we could have a life at risk."
It's been reported her family will travel to Ireland from Australia.
When Samantha was found last month, police were unable to get any substantive information from her for weeks and she communicated on a number of occasions by drawing.
The Irish Independent reported she was "fretful of any engagement with officialdom" and "extremely nervous around anyone in a uniform."
