A WOMAN in her fifties who was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old man in Abbeyfeale as she walked home after paying her respects at a funeral, said, in a victim impact statement, that she now feels “dirty and violated”. David Cahill of Hillview Drive, Abbeyfeale, pleaded guilty at Limerick Circuit Court to two separate counts of sexual assault in 2010. Judge Carroll Moran heard that the accused was 18 at the time of the first attack in May 2010.
Cahill, the court heard, approached a woman who was walking home after a night out socialising.
He grabbed her on both shoulders and said “come with me, I’m going to rape you”.
Evidence was given that Cahill forced the woman against a wall and tried to put his hands up inside her top to grab her breasts.
The woman dropped her purse in an attempt to stop the attacker touching her, but Cahill persisted and then put his hand down her pants and inside her underwear.
The woman screamed for help, and the court was told that Cahill fled the scene in a jeep that was seen driving at speed out the Killarney Road on the night in question.
The second count related to an incident shortly after 8pm on October 10 of the same year, when Cahill confronted a woman in her 50s as she walked home from church having paid her respects at a funeral in Abbeyfeale.
The woman, in evidence, saw Cahill and bid him goodnight, but he made no response.
He then approached, and she saw her wouldbe attacker undo his pants and begin to masturbate.
Identifying the man as David Cahill, the woman pleaded with him not to continue, but he made advances and pressed his body against her and grabbed her hand to place on his penis.
Cahill made demands for oral sex and for the woman to peform other acts.
Pinned against the wall, the woman pleaded with her attacker to let her go but Cahill continued to masturbate until he ejaculated on the woman’s coat.
He then grabbed the woman inside her top and touched her breasts. Cahill, the court was told in evidence, told the woman not to flag down any passing cars and not to tell anyone.
The woman made good her escape and went to a neighbour’s house where the gardai were called and a statement of complaint was made.
The following day, Cahill was arrested and charged with the offence. He also made admissions to committing the other assault earlier in May.
John O’Sullivan, for the State, told the court that while Cahill’s admissions assisted the case, DNA evidence from the woman’s coat would also link him to the attack.
In a victim impact statement read to Limerick Circuit Court, the woman subjected to the second attack, said that she now felt dirty and violated after the incident.
Releasing the accused on continuing bail, Judge Carroll Moran adjourned sentencing until February 7 next for the provision of reports to be furnished to the court.
