Alleged stalker ‘won’t go within a 1/2km of victim’ court is promised
A 60-year-old who allegedly stalked and threatened to kill his 27-year-old victim has promised the High Court he will stay half a kilometre away from her.
Renata Kaminska said she had lived in fear since Derek Collins offered her a lift home from a Christmas meal in the building where they both worked in 2012.
Mr Collins, a building manager in the Dublin office where Miss Kaminska worked as a receptionist, was said to have declared his love for her and allegedly attempted to kiss her before his behaviour ‘spiralled out of control’, leading ultimately to a threat to kill her.
Mr Collins, of Furry Hill, Sandyford, south Dublin, voluntarily gave Mr Justice Kevin Cross an undertaking to stay away from the woman and not to make any contact with her. If he breaches the undertaking, the judge warned, he faces jail. Last Thursday, Mr Justice Peter Charleton restrained him from contacting or approach-
‘Extremely inappropriate’
ing Miss Kaminska, after her affidavit was read out in court. Mr Coll i ns was not i n court on that occasion. Miss Kaminska said she had been employed as a receptionist by private security company Manguard Plus on the North Wall Quay since October 2010.
Mr Collins had been employed there as a building manager, working for Utrillo Ltd.
She said her problems began after a Christmas meal on December 19, 2012, when Mr Collins offered her a lift home. She did not feel comfortable being in a car alone with him, so she declined and walked away. She said he told her afterwards he had followed her home.
Four days later, she claimed he turned up at her house to deliver a noticeboard, which she said she had neither asked for nor needed. She thought this was ‘extremely inappropriate’.
On December 28, she said he wanted to show her something in the control room. He tried to hug and kiss her but she pulled away, she said. She detailed further incidents in January, including a declaration of love, when he said he had been waiting for her for 30 years. ‘I was very upset and uncomfortable,’ she said, claiming he would get ‘very angry’ if she went for cigarette breaks with anyone else. She claimed he often made inappropriate comments about her appearance.
She said he challenged her over not returning his phone calls and left voicemails with the sound of him breathing heavily down the phone.
She notified Mr Collins’s employer of his behaviour on January 15. She said they conducted an investigation, which led to him being suspended and ultimately dismissed sometime around February 9.
‘ The defendant’s behaviour appeared to spiral out of control after his dismissal,’ she said.
He would drive slowly past her office four or five times a day. On February 13, she said, she received a text from Mr Collins saying he wanted to apologise for everything and promising not to hurt her. She did not reply but asked her employer to ring Mr Collins to ask him to stop contacting her.
On March 8, she said, he called the front desk, where a colleague answered the phone. He allegedly said: ‘Renata, it’s me, Derek. Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about
‘I am in grave fear for my safety’
you.’ When he discovered it was not Miss Kaminska, he hung up.
She notified gardaí and went again to make an additional statement on March 20 after he allegedly drove beside her for 50 metres as she walked to work.
She said she was advised by the gardaí to contact a solicitor and apply for a restraining order. The following day, she alleged, she received a phone call from Mr Collins in which he threatened to kill her.
‘I am in grave fear for my safety,’ she said. Her counsel, Maurice Coffey BL, asked Judge Cross for an injunction to prevent Mr Collins from approaching or contacting Miss Kaminska. Mr Collins told the judge: ‘That’s no problem.’
He agreed under oath to refrain from contacting, approaching or coming within half a kilometre of Miss Kaminska, her place of residence or her place of work, including any form of electronic communication, telephone, email, social media, text message, post or message through a third party.
The judge added: ‘I pray that this is the end of this matter. I am glad some sense has broken out on all sides.’