‘Sinister’ student (21) jailed for stalking and hammer attack
A 21-YEAR-OLD student, whom a judge described as “a dangerous young man who continues to pose a risk of serious harm to the public”, has been sentenced to seven years, with the final two suspended, for stalking a fellow student and attacking her friend with a hammer.
The conduct of Igor Lewandowski (21) from Monasterevin, Co Kildare, was described as “sinister” by the probation service and his expressions of remorse “shallow” by medical experts.
Lewandowski was a second-year electronic engineering student at NUIG when he became obsessed with a 20-year-old student, and began stalking and harassing her incessantly over a 17-day period last May.
He drastically changed his appearance – by shaving off his hair, eyebrows and beard – when her friends pointed out to him during one stalking episode that he was easily recognisable.
He was arrested shortly after breaking into her apartment and assaulting her flatmate with a hammer early one morning and has remained in custody ever since.
Lewandowski pleaded guilty last November before Galway Circuit Criminal Court to harassing the woman at her student accommodation at Headford Road, Galway, and also at various other locations around Galway city on dates between May 10 and May 27 last year.
He also pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated burglary by breaking into her apartment on May 27 last year, while having a claw hammer with him which he used to assault her female flatmate, causing her harm.
The accused, who moved from Poland to Monasterevin with his family 10 years ago, was refused bail on six occasions since his incarceration last May. His sentence hearing took place yesterday.
The woman and her friends did not take his stalking behaviour seriously at first, but she immediately contacted gardaí when Lewandowski rang her doorbell early one morning and she could see as he pressed his face to the glass that he had shaved off his hair, eyebrows and beard.
In her victim impact statement read to the court last November, the woman said she feared for her life if Lewandowski was released.