Woman tells of terror when sexually assaulted by man (18) in Shannon

Gordon Deegan

A gym-goer has told of her terror and thought she was going to be raped by an adult teenager who sexually assaulted her from behind at 9.45am across a well-known footbridge in Shannon.

At Ennis Circuit Court, the teenage offender - with addresses in Limerick and Shannon - has pleaded guilty to the sexual assault of the woman on August 16th last, and the sexual assault took place 15 days after he committed a stalking offence against a female airport worker late at night on August 1st at another location in Shannon.

In the case of the sexual assault, the woman had just got off a bus to meet a friend at a local gym in Shannon at around 9.45am on August 16th.

The teenager - aged 18 at the time and high on a cocktail of drugs and alcohol- was on the same bus and followed the woman as she walked on a footbridge at Drumgeely, Shannon that traverses the main road to Shannon airport.

Counsel for the State, Sarah Jane Comerford BL said that as the woman got to the second level of the footbridge, the accused grabbed the woman’s backside "really, really tight".

Comerford (instructed by State Solicitor for Clare, Aisling Casey) said that he then pushed her forward into the steps and he reached around and grabbed her breasts roughly.

Comerford said that she felt his hand on her vagina roughly for a split second and all of the touching was outside her clothing.

Comerford said that the woman “was terrified and thought that she was going to be raped”.

In her victim impact statement, the woman recalled the sexual assault and said “I have near felt fear like that in my life. Knowing no one was around to come and help and save you - that you were on your own.”

The Shannon woman said: “All I kept thinking was 'I willl not let you rape me' as that was what I thought was going to happen to me. I just screamed out loud and constantly asked “Why are you doing this? Please Stop.”

She said: “Having nightmares and flashbacks to that moment are horrible.”

She asked: “Why didn’t I fight back more when the assault took place? Yes, I tried to get him off me but I should have tried harder.”

In relation to the stalking offence, the accused followed an airport worker off a bus at around 1.15am to the address where she lived with her fiancé.

Comerford said that the accused said ‘hey, hey, hey’ and the woman was trembling when her key code for her accommodation was not working.

Comerford said that the man then asked her did she want a ‘hard f**k’ with him, and the scared woman managed to open the door to let her into accommodation.

Comerford said that the woman could see the man slapping the closed door with his fist.

In her victim impact statement, the woman said: “I am thankful that I was able to get away and it did not cause too much harm to me but the difficult part is recovering from that incident.”

Det Garda Roddy Burke told the court that the accused - now aged 19 - has 36 previous convictions, including 34 committed before he turned the age of 18.

In a letter to the court, the accused said that he wanted to apologise for his actions.

Counsel for the accused, Patrick Whyms BL said that his client has previous convictions “but nothing of this nature”.

On the day of the sexual assault, Whyms said that his client the previous night and that morning had consumed a full litre of Jack Daniels, nine to 10 cans along with grams of cocaine.

Whyms (instructed by solicitor Daragh Hassett) said that his client had just finished school at the time of the offences and had plans to do an apprenticeship in construction.

Whyms said that his client is horrified at the state he got himself into and especially the effect it had on him.

Whyms said that the big issue for both injured parties is that they did not know what was going to happen to them.

He said that the stalking offence was isolated and short in duration while the sexual assault involved touching outside the clothes.

The accused is currently in custody, and Judge Francis Comerford said that "these are serious offences" and remanded him in custody to Tuesday morning for sentence.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help. In the case of an emergency, always dial 999/112.