A witness told a jury that she was followed in Ballymun by a man who shouted lewd remarks at her as she was walking to an early morning job. The incident took place a short time before another woman was attacked nearby in a rape attempt, the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday.
The witness said the man began following her, shouting and whistling as she made her way to work about 4.30 a.m. on January 15th, 1996.
Other women witnesses, who were also going to work that morning, told Mr Justice Carney and the jury of being followed by, or seeing, a young man dressed in dark clothes a short time before hearing a woman scream.
Garda Michael Mannix told prosecution counsel Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC (with Mr Des Zaidan BL) he was entering Ballymun Garda station to begin his shift when he heard a woman's screams coming from the direction of Ballymun Comprehensive Junior School.
He immediately drove in that direction and met the victim walking towards the station. They drove around in an attempt to locate the man who attacked her.
The garda was giving evidence on the second day of the trial of a 21-year-old man who denies attempted rape and sexual assault of a 30-year-old woman in the school grounds on January 15th, 1996.
The trial continues.