Guilty plea over two sex assaults

A LIMERICK man pleaded guilty yesterday to sexually assaulting two women in a rural town, telling one: “I’m going to rape you.”

David Cahill, aged 20, admitted sexually assaulting one of his victims on May 12, 2010, and the other on October 10, 2010.

The first assault took place shortly after midnight as Cahill’s victim walked home alone after a night out.

Cahill, who was 19 at the time, ran towards the woman and told her: “Come with me. I’m going to rape you.”

Limerick Circuit Court heard Cahill, of Hillview Drive, Abbeyfeale, forced the woman against a wall and put his hands up her top and down her trousers. He fled in a 4x4 after she shouted for help.

The teenager attacked his second victim as she walked home after attending an evening Mass.

When she met Cahill on the road he untied his pants and approached her, before pushing her against a wall and assaulting her.

In victim impact statements read to the court, the women expressed how their lives had been changed by Cahill’s attacks.

One of the women said she has panic attacks and “can still see his face in flashbacks”. The other said she “felt ashamed and embarrassed”.

Judge Carroll Moran adjourned sentencing until February 7, 2012, to examine a psychiatric evaluation of Cahill.