Una Ring tells of harassment: 'I didn't feel safe even when he was in jail'

Cork man James Steele was jailed this week for harassing and threating Una Ring. She explains how 'just a work colleague' escalated into someone much more sinister

Sat, 06 Feb, 2021 - 17:49

Eoin English

They were work colleagues. Nothing more. Then came the unwanted sexual advances and the texts, before an obsession escalated to sinister stalking and threats of rape.

Now Una Ring, the brave woman who was the victim of a terrifying stalker ordeal, has given a chilling insight into how the man she once regarded as "just a work colleague" began to harass her, stalk, and threaten her, before he was caught in a Garda surveillance operation as he was about to break into her home with the intent of raping her.

James Steele, aged 52, of Reavilleen, Rosscarbery, Co Cork, was arrested in the early hours of July 27, 2020, outside Ms Ring’s home in Youghal. He was masked with a hat and snood. He had orange rope and duct tape in his pockets. He also had a metal crowbar. He had a dildo or prosthetic penis strapped to himself inside his pants. He has been in custody since.

He was sentenced to seven years, with the last two suspended, at Cork Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday, after pleading guilty to attempting to break in to commit rape at Ms Ring's home, where she lives with her adult son and daughter. He also admitted to harassment and related charges. He apologised to Ms Ring.

'He was a married man'

Una Ring worked with Steele for about 18 months and said there was no indication at any stage that he was interested in her.

“He was a married man. I had no interest in him either. He was just a work colleague. We got along very well but that was the extent of it," she told Neil Prendeville on RedFM.

"There was no contact outside of work. There was no relationship outside of work.

But by February 2020, Steele had changed job and had asked her to help him set up an exhibition at his new firm.

Ms Ring said she figured he was trying to make a good impression with his new employers so she agreed to help, but when she got there, she realised it was a ruse to get her on her own.

Steele made an amorous advance by embracing her and trying to kiss her. She told him repeatedly to stop.

In the following months, he texted her several times — some were apologies for his behaviour — all of which she ignored. But on April 1, he texted that he was going to call to her house.

She replied to that one saying not to call, and she began to feel fearful, so she reported the texts to gardaí in case anything happened to her.

Then in early July, she awoke one morning to find the wheels of her car had been spray-painted a bubble-gum pink. She put it down to vandalism but still reported the matter to gardaí who took statements and photographs.

A week later, Xs, Os, and the words ‘I win’ were painted on her window but she said she didn’t believe Steele could be involved. Again, the incident was reported to gardaí.

Then came the serious escalation.

Disturbing letters

Ms Ring found the first of two brown envelopes with disturbing letters left on the windscreen of her car.

In one letter, Steele said he would come to her house and they could have consensual sex and, if not, he would rape her. The envelope had two condoms in sealed wrappers.

Ms Ring alerted gardaí again. They mounted night-time patrols in her park, advised her to install a CCTV system, and conducted a security sweep of her home before suggesting she seal her letterbox to prevent the pouring of petrol through the door.

She installed the CCTV system which then captured a masked figure leaving a second letter on her windscreen. This time, Steele threatened to rape Ms Ring and her adult daughter.

“The gloves were off then. I went into protective mamma mode. I was absolutely petrified,” she said.

Garda surveillance

Gardaí, who had assessed all the information, had by now mounted an extensive surveillance operation close to Ms Ring's home, with two officers sitting in an unmarked car every night from midnight until 5am.

“They said that no matter what happened in the town, they would not leave that post,” Ms Ring said.

Then on the night of July 27 last, a masked man was spotted by the undercover gardaí approaching the house. Garda James Heffernan intercepted him.

A CCTV image of James Steele at the home of Una Ring. Picture Cork Courts Limited

Ms Ring, who was awake inside the house, heard the crank of the crowbar as the suspect dropped it on the driveway and tried to flee. Garda Heffernan caught him and arrested Steele seconds later.

Ms Ring watched, relieved, from an upstairs room as Steele was taken away.

She said: “I coped pretty well until September 1 but then I woke up, and it was like somebody had poured cement over me. I couldn’t lift my head off the pillow.

I just couldn’t cope. I was constantly checking to see if the doors were locked, even though I knew he had been arrested and that he was in jail. It was just the sense of not feeling safe.

Una Ring's relief

And while she would have preferred Steele to get a longer sentence, Ms Ring said she's just happy that he didn’t get into her house that night last July.

“Him getting into the house and getting 25 years is no good to me if my life is over or my life is ruined,” she said.

“Five years is a long enough time to be sitting in a cell. And he has five years’ probation after that.”

But she said she feels sorry for his family, who have done nothing wrong. “I think I will get over this quicker than they will. This will follow them. My heart breaks for them because I didn’t deserve this, but they didn’t deserve it either," she said.

They, too, will need help and support over the coming months, she added.

Ms Ring, who returned to work on January 12, thanked her family, neighbours, friends, colleagues, her GP, and her psychotherapist, and said she is coping well now.

“He was the only bad apple — everybody else has been absolutely brilliant,” she said.