Roofer convicted of three random violent attacks over five years

A jury has convicted a roofer of carrying out three random and violent attacks on women in Dublin in a five-year period.

Slawomir Gierlowski (33) of Galtymore Road, Drimnagh had pleaded not guilty to false imprisonment, sexual assault and assault of a woman on September 11th, 2011 and to false imprisonment, sexual assault and assault of a second woman on September 3rd, 2015.

He also denied falsely imprisoning and assaulting a third woman and having a hunting knife with intent to intimidate on May 16th, 2016.

This third attack took place on Knockmeenagh Lane, Clondalkin, Dublin, not far from the other two attacks and from a house occupied by the family of Gierlowski's partner.

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The women cannot be identified for legal reasons.

On Friday morning the jury of eleven men found Gierlowski guilty of carrying out the 2016 attack. The jury had deliberated for a little under five hours in total, having returned guilty verdicts relating to the earlier offences on Thursday afternoon.

All verdicts were unanimous ones.

Judge Pauline Codd thanked the jurors for their care in deliberating.

She also praised the “assiduous” work carried out by the gardaí ­ investigating the three crimes. She said the difficult cases were handled with sensitivity.

The judge commended the three complainants for the strength and courage showed by each of them in giving evidence during the trial.

Gierlowski, a Polish national who has lived and working in Ireland since 2008, sat impassively as the verdicts were delivered. He has been in custody since his arrest in June 2016 as a suspect for the attack the previous month.

A date for sentencing will be set later on Friday.