A COURT was told yesterday that a man arrested for unsuccessfully trying to abduct a teenage girl in the midlands had subsequently admitted he had been responsible for a similar failed attempt to drag a 20-year-old woman into his car in Co Laois five years ago.
At Portlaoise Circuit Court, Dermot Murphy, of Atlantic Coast Apartments, Tramore, Co Waterford, admitted attempting to abduct the woman in Laois in 2007, intending to take her to a quiet place to sexually assault her.
Evidence was given before Judge Tony Hunt of how the woman, who is not of Irish origin, was walking on a rural road in October 2007 when Murphy parked his van ahead of her.
When she took off her headphones to answer his query for directions, he grabbed her by the neck and waist and tried to drag her into the vehicle.
He told her he had a knife and would kill her if she didn’t get in.
When an articulated lorry arrived on the scene Murphy fled, and the lorry driver, who contacted gardaí, told them he’d seen the victim stagger onto the road to flag him down.
She was extremely distressed and wouldn’t approach him as she asked for help.
A Garda investigation yielded no successful leads, but when Murphy was arrested and questioned about a similar incident in the midlands last July, he made voluntary admissions about the Laois incident, which led to him being charged.
The court heard that when a garda asked if he had done anything similar to last July’s offence, he became distressed and admitted the Laois incident.
He said he felt “lousy and ashamed” of what he had done and was glad he hadn’t succeeded in abducting the woman. He accepted that he had intended to sexually assault her.
His admissions made the Laois prosecution possible, because the victim did not recognise Murphy in an identity parade.
Det Sgt Gerard Mahony said the woman began counselling last year following the identity parade, and she has trouble sleeping and concentrating on her studies.
He said Murphy had been regularly travelling the roads between his current address in Tramore, and his family home near Athlone in Co Westmeath.
It is the second time in less than a week that evidence has been given of Murphy attempting to abduct a female with the intention of sexually assaulting her.
Last week Mullingar Circuit Court heard how a 13-year-old girl he tried to abduct in the midlands last year bit and kicked him as he tried to drag her from her bike into the back of a white van on a rural road.
He will be sentenced in both cases at Mullingar Circuit Court in July.