Woman attacked and raped on night-time walk

Two young men violently attacked and raped a middle-aged woman on a night-time walk, it emerged today.

The woman, who was alone, was set upon in the popular Bushy Park area of Terenure, south Dublin after midnight on Tuesday night.

Gardaí said the two attackers, who had been travelling in a car, stopped beside the woman on Springfield Avenue, got out and assaulted her.

The car is described as dark coloured and the two prime suspects as wearing dark clothes and in their late teens.

Gardaí at Terenure appealed for the public’s help in tracing the two attackers.

Detectives wish to speak to anyone who was in the Springfield Avenue, Dodder Park Road or Bushy Park areas between midnight and 2.30am on March 31.

The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) said it was very concerned by the increase in the levels of violence accompanying rape and sexual assaults.

Chief executive Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop said the trauma that follows such an attack is not only borne by the victim herself, but by their family, close friends and whole community.

“We are forced to ask questions like, is it safe to walk alone anymore? Why can we not walk and feel safe? What is happening to us as a society if we cannot feel safe in own neighbourhoods?,” she said.

“This woman had every right to go for a walk in her own neighbourhood without having to suffer such appalling violence.”

She urged anyone who had been the victim of an assault to contact the Rape Crisis Centre’s 24-hour helpline.