Gardai investigate approach to three Dublin girls

Gardaí are investigating an approach to three Co Dublin girls by a man who tried to entice them into his car by offering them money.

The girls, aged 12 and 13, were returning home from a trip to Dún Laoghaire at about 5 p.m. yesterday.

They had just got off a bus on the Shanganagh Road between Bray and Shankill, when a man driving what they said was a new, gold-coloured, Fiat Punto slowed down beside them.

According to one of the girls, Jessica Doyle (12), he rolled down the window and started waving a €10 note while gesturing to the passenger seat beside him.

"He was saying 'girls, girls' to us and patting the seat. We just walked off and got away from him," she said.

"We looked back and he was waving the money at us," she added. "Then we went home and told Mum what happened.

"I'm OK now, but I was pretty scared yesterday," Jessica said.

She said the man was wearing glasses, had grey hair and was in his fifties or sixties.

Ms Ciara Doyle said her daughter and the other girls, Emma Dunne (13) and Lisa Smith (12), were "very frightened" by the incident.

"I don't think they realised the seriousness of it until I said we’re going to the gardaí, but they did the right thing," she said. "Jessica has been watching the news about the two missing girls in England, so I think she is pretty aware of what can happen".

Last Wednesday night, two girls, aged nine and ten, were approached by a man in a housing estate in Dundalk. He offered them money to get into his car. Another 12-year-old girl is believed to have been approached later that evening.

Gardaí are treating those incidents as attempted abductions. They believe the same man may have been involved in two other incidents in the area in recent weeks. The man was described as being in his thirties or forties, with short brown hair, glasses and an earring.

A Garda spokeswoman said there was nothing at this stage to indicate any link with the Dundalk incidents and yesterday's approach.