Student robbed and threatened after pursuing hit-and-run car

A college student found herself in a terrifying scenario after she followed a hit-and-run vehicle only to be chased down by the culprits as matters took “a sinister twist” on an unlit road in Co Kerry.

Two Dublin men, visiting Kerry, one of whom is now serving a life sentence for murder committed just months after the encounter, pleaded guilty at the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee to robbing the student.

The young woman, a student in Cork, now 21 and back at her studies, had been driving to Tralee from Ardfert with a friend at around midnight on February 25th 2017.

“Near Ballyroe a silver car cut in front of her while overtaking her and damaged the front bumper of her car,” prosecuting counsel Tom Rice said.

Det Garda Mick Healy of Tralee Garda Station agreed with counsel that 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 own car.

As she closed in on it, her friend in the passenger seat noted the vehicle registration number. Then things took “a sinister turn”, Mr Rice said. The silver car suddenly stopped forcing her to overtake it. And at that point, it started following 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, their faces concealed, emerged from the silver vehicle and shouted threats, looking for money. She opened her window and said all she had was a mobile phone. She got out of the car and one of the men, Anthony Walsh threatened to kill her, the court heard.

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

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

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 iPhone app “Find my phone” which was on the student’s stolen device and they arrived at an apartment at Ardfert where Walsh was so passed out from drink they could not rouse him, the court heard.

Walsh had been visiting his partner, a woman who lived in Ardfert.

Walsh (31) has 78 convictions including murder for which he is now serving a life sentence in Mountjoy Prison. The murder, of a 54 year man he beat to death, took place in Swords Co Dublin just five months after the incident near Tralee.

He was “the aggressor” on the night of February 25th, Det Healy said.

A co-accused, Mark Mulvey (32), of Sandyford, Dublin, originally from 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 barrister 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.

* This article was amended on November 26th, 2018