The attacks, he said, would give him a “buzz”

He said he often got uncontrollable sexual urges and when these came over him, he could not stop himself from assaulting any woman who might be in the area. The attacks, he said, would give him a “buzz”.

A 46-year-old computer programmer, described by a judge as a “sexual predator”, who prowled the streets at night looking for women to attack, was sentenced to three years in prison with the last two years suspended, at Galway Circuit Criminal Court last Friday.

Gerard Walsh, Ower, Roscahill, Galway, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in the Shantalla area of the city on a date unknown between December 1 and 31, 2002.

Walsh had been exposing himself to women for 20 years, before he ‘graduated’ to this assault, reports from therapists handed into court revealed.

The accused was 42 when he committed this offence and Gardaí received no complaints from other women since it occurred almost five years ago, the court was also told.

Garda Bernice McGowan gave evidence that in December 2002, the teenager was walking home alone at night along Shantalla Road when she noticed a man following her. She got a good look at him and managed to get home safely.

Then, two weeks later she was walking the same route home at 8.30pm when she was grabbed from behind by the same man. He sexually assaulted her but she screamed at him to leave her alone and he ran away in the direction of Cooke’s Corner. She again got a good look at him and realised it was the same man who had been following her two weeks previously.

Then on January 14, 2005, at 8.45pm the girl was walking alone in a laneway near her home when she again saw her attacker walking behind her. She screamed at the top of her voice and he ran off in the direction of Rahoon Road. The girl went to Salthill Garda Station and made a formal complaint.

She had always walked everywhere but after those incidents she saved up and bought herself a car and in February, 2006, was driving home when she noticed him walking in the same area.
Then, on March 16, 2006, at 10.50 pm she was driving down Shantalla Road when she saw her attacker again. She saw him get into a silver Ford Fiesta and she followed him in her own car to Fairlands Park, in Newcastle, where he parked his car.

The girl rang the Gardai and they arrived at the scene. Walsh admitted straight away that he had sexually assaulted the young girl. Garda McGowan stated the girl had been a strong, fearless, independent person prior to the attack but since it happened she was afraid to be on her own at night and was even afraid to be home alone.

Garda McGowan said Walsh, a native of Tralee, had told her he always came to the Shantalla/Highfield Park area of the city after finishing work to go for a walk because the area was quiet.

He said he often got uncontrollable sexual urges and when these came over him, he could not stop himself from assaulting any woman who might be in the area. The attacks, he said, would give him a “buzz”.

The court heard the accused had a previous conviction for indecently exposing himself in February, 1996, and he had been given the benefit of the Probation Act at Gort District Court in 1998.

Judge Raymond Groarke said that any person who attacks people walking home in the dark goes to prison to act as a deterrent for others contemplating attacking people in similar manner.

“This man is a sexual predator, ambushing and pursuing vulnerable young girls, and if I do not sentence him to a term of imprisonment, then the young ladies of the West of Ireland are going to say, ‘What protection are the courts affording us?’, and they would be right,” the judge said.

Reading the reports, Judge Groarke observed there was a very high risk of Walsh reoffending.
The judge said Walsh had planned this attack and that his “modus operandi” for 20 years beforehand was to expose himself to females in public places and to female hitchhikers in his car.
Imposing the sentence, Judge Groarke said the offence occurred almost five years ago and he had to take into account the fact that Walsh had not re-offended in the interim.

The final two years of the three-year sentence were suspended on condition that on Walsh’s release from prison he come under the strict supervision of the Probation Service and not re-offend for five years. The accused was also placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for five years.