A CONVICTED rapist who attempted to rob a 24-year-old woman 14 hours after being released from prison is to be sentenced later at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Trevor Byrne (32) of O’Devaney Gardens, Dublin, pleaded guilty to the attempted robbery of Noemie Krey, Leo Street, Dublin, on September 15th, 2009. He also pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary at the same address on the same date.
The court heard Byrne had been released from prison about 14 hours earlier and was under Garda surveillance at the time. A garda saw him enter the victim’s house. He “did not know the context of him entering the house” but “saw him running away”.
Garda Ronan Hobbs told James Dwyer, prosecuting, that Ms Krey, a French national, was walking home when she saw someone in a red hoodie coming towards her but thought nothing of it.
She called her friend to tell her she had reached her home. She had her phone in her right hand and the key of the house in her left when she saw the same individual.
Ms Krey asked him what he wanted. He grabbed her phone and hit her on the side of the face with it.
He told her to open the door and he followed her inside and said he wanted money.
She said she told him she had to get money from the bedroom where her flatmate was asleep. As she went up the stairs Byrne walked beside her and grabbed her. She knocked on the door, which made Byrne angry because he knew she would not have to do so if it was her own bedroom.
Byrne vanished from the scene when her flatmate came out of the bedroom. They searched the house but Byrne had “made good his escape”, the court heard.
Byrne was arrested the next day and interviewed at Mountjoy Garda station.
In her victim impact statement, Ms Krey said as well a blow to the face, her arm was slightly swollen. She said she received psychiatric treatment as three months later she began to have nightmares.
She said she sometimes had to get out of bed to turn on the light and is always watching to see if someone is following her.
“I will always be connected in some way with Trevor Byrne’s life,” she said.
“I just hope that nobody else has to go through what I had to. It’s horrible.”
Judge Patricia Ryan remanded Byrne in custody and is to sentence him in March.