A Trinity College student who alleges she has been harassed over a long period by a former classmate told a court yesterday she was very frightened by him.
Software designer Paul Meehan (34), Trinity Plaza, Tara Street, Dublin, denies two counts of harassing Eleanor Winters (21), one of assaulting her and another of assaulting her boyfriend on different dates earlier this year.
Ms Winters claims he has concocted a relationship between them which never existed while he says she "sent out signals" that she liked him.
Dublin District Court heard they were doing the same course in Trinity and the first time she became aware of him was when he dropped a letter on to her desk after a lecture in January 2005.
He claimed in the letter he was feeling intimidated by looks that he (Meehan) was getting from her (Winters) friends in college.
"I told him I had no idea what he was talking about in the letter," she said.
She made it clear to him at that stage she had no interest in him but he continued to try to contact her, at first by e-mail and later in person.
College authorities were informed of his behaviour and he was thrown out of his €6,000 course and banned from the Trinity campus.
He continued to try to pursue Ms Winters even when she was in the company of her boyfriend who told the court Mr Meehan grabbed him by the throat and punched him.
Ms Winters said she became very frightened by Mr Meehan and at one stage stayed out of college for a month because she feared to go out.
On another occasion, he followed Ms Winters while she was with another friend. They decided to go straight to Pearse Street Garda station to complain about him and on the way he walked on her heels and poked her in the back.
At the station he was arrested after he became aggressive with gardaí. He was released on bail but he had found out where she lived in Dublin.
He called to her apartment on two occasions before he was arrested again and spent five days in custody where, he claimed, he was beaten up in his cell before he was able to raise bail again.
Ms Winters denied under cross-examination by Mr Meehan, who is representing himself, that she had ever flirted or "sent out signals" that she liked him.
Mr Meehan claimed Ms Winters never told him she did not want to have anything to do with him. His later contacts with her were an attempt to find out why she had got him thrown out of college.
The case continues next Wednesday.