Crazed ‘rape kit’ stalker is back on the streets
TURNED UP AT VICTIM’S HOME WITH DUCT TAPE & CROWBAR
A CRAZED stalker has been released from prison — after serving three years for an attempted break in at a woman’s home to try to rape her.
Evil creep James Steele (53) was arrested on July 27,
2020, after turning up at Una Ring’s home with duct tape, rope, a crowbar and a prosthetic penis strapped to him.
Our photos show
Steele, now sporting a grey beard and glasses, seated in the back seat of a car that came to collect him from Dublin’s
Arbour Hill Prison yesterday morning.
Steele was freed after serving just three years of a five year sentence he received in February 2021, after a chilling campaign of terror against Ms Ring.
Steele was arrested outside Ms Ring’s home in Youghal, Co Cork.
Fear
The mother of two has since spoken out about her ordeal and previously told the Sunday Mirror that she feared his eventual release.
“Once he gets out I will be terrified. He will have to abide by parole conditions, but that’s the scariest thing for me.
“I’m afraid that if he doesn’t abide by
NOW OUT OF JAIL: James Steele being driven from Arbour Hill Prison yesterday morning after his release (also below) with a condom on it. I believe he would have killed me.
Una previously appeared in the Virgin Media programme Stalked and told in detail of her harrowing ordeal.
Steele, of Reavilleen, Rosscarbery, Co Cork, later told gardai that the only explanation he could offer for his actions was that he had become totally obsessed with Ms Ring, who was his former work colleague.
Threat
The court heard that Steele had asked out then work colleague Ms Ring in February 2020.
Despite being rebuffed, he began sending her several text messages, even when she asked him to stop.
She then awoke one morning and left her home to discover the
tyres on her car had all been painted pink.
She also later discovered that a game of Xs and Os had been painted onto the window of her house with the disturbing message “I win”.
Days later she discovered letters in black envelopes on her car windscreen — including a letter containing a threat that he would break into her home via the back door and rape her and her daughter.
“I was so certain that James Steele was going to break in and attack me that I used to tidy up the house each night before going to bed so that the house would be presentable for the crime scene photos,” Ms Ring previously said.
“I even considered getting a tattoo with my name, town name and date of birth so that if he abducted and killed me that my body would be easily and quickly identified – that’s how utterly terrified I was...I still am.
“James Steele has destroyed my life in the last year. I have been diagnosed with PTSD, have ongoing nightmares and have suffered from depression and anxiety.”