GARDA HUNT AS WOMAN WALKING DOG ATTACKED
Brute fled as man came to victim’s aid
GARDAI are hunting a man in his late 30s after a woman was attacked while walking her dog.
The assailant jumped on the victim from behind, pulled her hair, pushed her and beat her as she went for a morning stroll along the Battle of the Boyne boardwalk outside Drogheda, Co Louth.
The woman, in her 40s, was seriously traumatised by the incident. She suffered a number of blows to her body after being punched and kicked.
However, gardai believe her injuries would have been more serious had a man walking nearby not heard her screams and come to her rescue. The attacker also kicked her dog, causing internal injuries.
A Garda source said: “Only this man came to her help and her attacker ran off, God knows what might have happened. She is a lucky woman.
“She was walking under the Boyne
Cable Bridge when this incident happened. It is a shocking attack.”
The boardwalk, which runs for a couple of miles from Drogheda to Oldbridge House, is a popular route for walkers and joggers every day.
Gardai said the perpetrator was in his late 30s, tall and unshaven with thinning hair. He spoke with a non-irish accent and was wearing a red T-shirt and grey tracksuit bottoms.
It is believed he approached two other women along the same path a few hours later but backed off and again fled.
Gardai say they are investigating the latest incident.
Last night Louth Sinn Fein TD Imelda Munster called for an increased Garda presence at the popular tourist haunt.
She said: “The Boyne boardwalk is a great facility and it’s vitally important that people, particularly women, feel safe there and do not become wary of using it for fear of attack or assault.”