Woman’s ordeal went on for hours
The man had driven her to a remote area in the Dublin Mountains, early on November 19 last, a court heard yesterday.
Another car came on the scene at a crucial moment and interrupted her attacker, but he then proceeded to drive on a short distance before raining blows on her with his fists and with a bat that he had in the car.
The woman, who was in court but not identified, told investigating gardaí that Robert Quigley said to her at the height of his attack that he had come close to killing someone previously.
Detective Sergeant Joe O’Hara, of Shankill Garda Station, told the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee the woman went through a dreadful, five-hour ordeal and was badly beaten.
Quigley, 27, pleaded guilty to three charges, including false imprisonment, assault causing harm and sexual assault of the woman at locations in counties Wicklow and Dublin on the occasion.
During the hearing, he sat impassively in the dock dressed in a black top and dark pants and wearing a patch over his left eye.
Quigley, with an address at Seskin View Road, Tallaght, Dublin, was said to have qualifications in the electronics field and lived for some time in Tralee.
Judge Carroll Moran adjourned the case for sentencing to the same court in Limerick on July 31.
Det Sgt O’Hara said the woman had been out celebrating on the night she passed a higher, third-level degree. After being in a pub in a Harcourt Street hotel, she and her brother went to a nightclub, which she left at 2.20am.
She had been looking for a taxi and got into the back of the car being driven by the accused. She fell asleep in the car and awoke during the journey. The accused told her he was a policeman and that she was in trouble because cocaine had been found in her bag.
She knew something bad was going on, but kept talking and asking questions of the accused. She feared she was going to be raped and kept asking to be taken to a Garda station.
Quigley reached into the back of the car and grabbed some cable ties, which he used to tie her hands.
“It was an extremely dark, dreadful night in the Dublin mountains, an eerie sort of place. The car was seen at various locations, including outside Johnny Fox’s pub,” Det Sgt O’Hara added.
When the accused stopped the car, he started to get mad at the woman and put his thumbs against her throat. He also put something like a belt made of leather, or rubber, and pushed it against her throat.
“Her head was against the headrest and she could not breathe. She thought she was being choked,” Det Sgt O’Hara said.
The accused had pulled down her underwear when a car came on the scene. In it were two men who were out preparing an orienteering course. This interrupted the accused and the woman, violently resisting him, tried to get the men’s attention by kicking and screaming.
But, Quigley drove on for another 400 to 500 yards. When he stopped the car, he started beating the woman with his fists and hit her about eight times across the head and face with a bat, as result of which she bled profusely. He also put what seemed like a wheelbrace to her neck as if to choke her.
After a long struggle, she managed to get out of the car. The accused drove away and was arrested four days later in Tralee. She was covered in blood and was taken to Tallaght Hospital.
A victim impact statement said that, since the attack, if the woman needed to go anywhere she wanted someone to go with her.
She thought all the time about the attack, had nightmares and her trust and confidence in people had fallen greatly. While counsellors had helped her, she did not think the memory of her ordeal would go away.
Senior counsel Anthony Sammon, for Quigley, said his client was not seeking to take from the “grossness and criminality” of what he had visited upon his victim. He also wished to express shame for what he had done.
He had been deeply disturbed and there were also other factors in himself which led to his offending.
