Man pleads not guilty to attacks on three women

A MAN has gone on trial over three separate attacks on women in five years.

Slawomir Gierlowski, 33, faces a number of charges including sexual assault and false imprisonment.

The offences were allegedly carried out in Clondalkin, West Dublin.

Yesterday at the Circuit Criminal Court he denied all nine charges.

A lawyer said the accused began choking a woman before punching and putting his hand up her skirt in September 2011 as she was walking home after a night out.

She added in September 2015 a man also grabbed a woman from behind before putting a belt around her neck.

Judge Pauline Codd heard the attacker began wrapping duct tape around her face and hands then touched her genitalia.

A lawyer told the jury that a year later a man armed with a hunting knife attacked a third woman as she walked to work.

He held the blade to her throat but she fought back and the assailant ran off.

The court heard a Garda probe identified a white van parked in the area that was linked to Gierlowski, from Galtymore Road, Drimnagh, South Dublin.

A blood-stained jacket was found at his home and an opened packet of cable ties were in the van.

It was claimed DNA links the accused to each of the three crime scenes.

The trial continues.