‘Sinister twist’ saw hit-and-run car follow student

A college student found herself in a nightmare scenario after she followed a hit-and-run vehicle only to become the hunted herself after matters took “a sinister twist” on the road in North Kerry at midnight on February 25, 2017, the Circuit Criminal Court has heard.

Two Dublin men, one of whom who is now serving a life sentence for murder committed just months after the Kerry incident, pleaded guilty to robbing the student.

The woman, a student in Cork, now 21, had been driving to Tralee on the main Ardfert road with her friend.

“Near Ballyroe, a silver car cut in front of her while overtaking her and damaged the front bumper of her car,” Det Garda Mick Healy agreed with Tom Rice, prosecuting.

The silver vehicle failed to stop and the student decided to follow it to identify it, as she was upset about the damage to her car, Det Healy agreed.

As she closed in on it her passenger noted the car registration number.

There things took “a sinister turn”, Mr Rice said.

The silver car suddenly stopped, forcing her to overtake it. At that point, it started tailing her.

On a dark road, she turned off into a B&B to seek assistance but the silver car pulled in behind her.

She locked the doors of her car.

Two men with their faces concealed emerged from the silver vehicle, shouted threats looking for money.

She opened her window and said all she had was a phone.

She got out of the car and one of the men, Anthony Walsh, threatened to kill her.

The men drove off when she provided her iPhone and her bank card and bank card number.

“She was in fear for herself and her friend because of the threats to shoot her,” said Det Healy.

The student had gone through “a bad few months” after the event.

She had to drop out of college for a while, Det Healy said.

Tralee gardaí were able to trace the whereabouts of the two men via the ‘Find my phone’ app on the student’s phone and they arrived at an apartment at Ardfert where Walsh was so passed out from drink they could not rouse him.

Walsh, now of Mountjoy Prison, had been visiting his partner.

Walsh has 78 convictions and is serving a life sentence for the murder of a 54-year-old man in Swords Co Dublin in July 2017.

He was “the aggressor” on the night of February, Det Healy agreed with Mr Rice.

A co-accused , Mark Mulvey, aged 32, of Sandyford Park, Sandyford, Dublin, a native of Glencullen, had fallen in with “bad company” after he became involved in a relationship with “a female from an ethnic minority of Irish origin,” his defence counsel said.

Mulvey had no propensity for violence and Det Healy agreed Mulvey was a man who was “easily led”.

Judge Thomas E O’Donnell sentenced Walsh to four years imprisonment to run alongside his life sentence.

He sentenced Mulvey to four years, suspended for four years.