A 27-year-old unemployed Dublin man yesterday pleaded guilty to assault causing harm, sexual assault and false imprisonment of a young woman in the Dublin mountains last November.
A previous court heard that Robert Quigley had been sleeping rough and in his car for some time in Co Kerry. Quigley, of Seskin View Road, Tallaght, Dublin, was arraigned at the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee yesterday.
He pleaded guilty to assaulting the woman causing her harm at Military Road, Glasamucky, Co Dublin, to falsely imprisoning her at locations in counties Wicklow and Dublin, and to sexually assaulting her at Military Road on November 19th last.
Judge Carroll Moran lifted reporting restrictions imposed in the District Court after prosecution counsel Tom Rice said naming the accused or the locations could not identify the victim. Mr Rice also asked that Robert Quigley be placed on the sex offenders' register immediately.
There was no objection from the defence team who included Anthony Sammon SC, junior counsel Elizabeth Murphy and solicitor David Ramsay.
Judge Moran left in place legal restrictions on identifying the injured party.
At one point in the proceedings yesterday, Mr Rice said he was asked to point out "the injured party is in court today".
Judge Moran remanded Quigley in continuing custody to Arbour Hill Prison to appear for sentencing on July 12th next at Tralee and placed him on the sexual offenders' register from yesterday.
Sgt Joseph O'Hara of Shankill Garda station said at the accused's first appearance before Castleisland District Court last November that Robert Quigley met the injured party in Harcourt Street, Dublin. He took her in his car to the Dublin mountains and used cable ties to tie her hands. He drove around the area for up to five hours with the tied-up woman in the car, during which time he assaulted her both sexually and with a stick over the head and face.
The parties had no connection with each other before that, Sgt O'Hara said.
That court also heard how he had been sleeping rough for some time in his car and had been ejected from two addresses in Co Kerry. He was arrested in Co Kerry on November 23rd, four days after the incident.