Seven years jail for sex attacker who stalked victim

A JUDGE has jailed a man for seven years after describing how he stalked a woman from a late night bus before sexually attacking her in a park.

During the attack in December 2016 Eduard Boaca, 23, told her he had a knife and threatened to kill her unless she gave in to his wishes. Six months later he trapped another woman in a McDonald’s toilet cubicle, told her he had a knife and again demanded sex.

However, that victim, described as a ‘strong woman’ by gardaí, told Boaca what he was doing was wrong and persuaded him not to carry out the attack, and to promise not to do it again. He let her go.

Boaca of Bramblefield Park, Clonee, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbery and sexual assault of the woman in Clonee on December 18, 2016. He also pleaded guilty to the false imprisonment of the woman at McDonald’s on Grafton Street, Dublin, on May 4 last year.

Judge Martin Nolan imposed a five-year sentence for the first offence, and four years for the second, and he said they must run consecutively because Boaca committed this offence while on bail for the earlier one. Judge Nolan said he would suspend the final two years of the sentence in the hope that Boaca will rehabilitate himself. Boaca’s previous convictions are for minor offences. The court heard that the first incident began as a robbery when Boaca followed the woman off the Nitelink bus. During the robbery he touched her breasts and under her dress. He then threatened her and demanded sex. He told her if she didn’t do what he said ‘bad things’ would happen. The woman managed to get away and run out in front of a passing taxi.

In the second incident, he hid in a cubicle of the women’s toilets late at night with the intention of sexually assaulting a woman, the court heard. After trapping the woman in the cubicle he told her, ‘do what I say, I have a knife’, and he demanded sex.

Garda Wayne Carey said that victim was a ‘strong lady’ and was able to talk Boaca down. He told her he was doing this because his girlfriend had broken up with him and the victim told him it was ‘not okay’.

Boaca began crying and promised not to do it again, before letting her go. The ordeal lasted around 15 minutes. In a victim impact statement she said the incident has affected her trust in men, and she never goes into public bathrooms alone now.

The victim of the 2016 attack said that she couldn’t sleep for weeks afterwards and was afraid to leave her home on her own for months. She couldn’t return to college because she was afraid to commute on public transport.

She said the locks to her home had to be changed because her keys and passport were in the handbag taken by Boaca.