‘Agon is the MONSTER that haunts my dreams – The flashbacks make my skin crawl’

WOMAN RECALLS HORROR OF BEING SEXUALLY ASSAULTED WHILE SHE WAS SLEEPING

THIS is the man who carried out a sex attack on a sleeping woman and then fled the country on a plane which dramatically turned back midflight after gardaí contacted the pilot.

Meat factory worker Agon Menhei (36), previously of Ryland Road, Bunclody, Co. Wexford, has been jailed for four years for carrying out the horrific attack on Alma Waldron while she was sleeping on a friend’s couch following a house party in Bunclody last September.

Ms Waldron told the Sunday World that she told Menhei he could keep his apology when he tried to ‘say sorry’ in court and also rejected his offer of €1,000 as a token of remorse, which she said “added insult to injury”.

“He also wanted to know, if I wouldn’t accept it, would I allow him to donate it in my name to the Rape Crisis Centre. I said absolutely no way.

“I don’t think any woman seeking help from the Rape Crisis Centre would like to be receiving counselling services partially funded from a person capable of performing such a disturbing act on a sleeping woman.”

After the attack, Menhei fled the country, booking a flight for Turkey with the intention of travelling on to his native Kosovo.

ESCAPE

Menhei had managed to make it onto the plane and thought he had made his escape after it took off.

“He got out of the country and the flight was over Liverpool, but the guards got onto the pilot and the pilot turned around and brought him back,” Ms Waldron said.

“His plan was to get to Turkey and then go to Kosovo and I’d imagine never to be seen again.”

“In doing this, he had no thoughts of what he had done and how he had affected me in those moments while he planned his escape home to his own country. He showed me no empathy, only more hurt.

“Agon is the monster that haunts my dreams at night. It’s like a record on repeat – images and feelings that won’t disappear. No matter how hard I try I can’t get it to stop it’s constant.

“The flashbacks make my skin crawl. I can hear the little whispers of him hushing me, telling me it’s okay; the feeling of his hips thrusting up against me, his penis up against my vagina his hands touching my skin.”

Explaining the events of the night, Detective Garda Catherine Keogh told Wexford Circuit Court that last September Ms Waldron was feeling low, on medication for depression and anxiety.

Her then friend Amanda Kenny was going out with another Kosovan man, who worked at the meat factory in Clohamon and was a friend of Menhei.

“My then friend, who I’m not speaking to now, was going out with a man from Kosovo a few weeks,” Ms Waldron told the Sunday World.

“I was going through a bit of a hard time and she wanted to get me out and about. She said come down, we’ll have a great night in the house and take your mind off things.”

Ms Waldron said she thought there would be a mix of men and women at the party but it was just Amanda and a number of other men, including Menhei.

During the night Menhei, who wasn’t drinking alcohol, came on to Ms Waldron and there was a consensual kiss and hand-holding.

“He kissed me earlier in night and it turned my stomach thinking about it afterwards, but it was okay in the moment (consensual).”

TABLETS

However, Ms Waldron didn’t want to pursue a romantic relationship with Menhei and rejected his request to go back to his house.

“He tried earlier in the night and asked me to go back to his and I said ‘no, no, I’m staying here with my friend’. I didn’t go down there expecting to get with someone – it was the last thing on my mind.”

Ms Waldron said she had been drinking pink gin and cider on the night and also took tablets for a migraine which a house resident had.

“At end of the night, upon feeling drowsy, I fell asleep on the sofa, completely vulnerable and passed out. Agon committed the most unthinkable, despicable, and violating act. I was asleep. I should have been safe.”

She woke up to find her tights and underwear had been removed

and Menhei was on top of her pushing his penis against her.

“He had no right to remove my underwear and he had no right to force himself on top of me. What kind of a monster does that. I couldn’t move, I was frozen, I wanted to make him stop but I couldn’t.

“Three times I told him to stop. Three times I used my words, and he just shushed me and told me it was okay. In what context did he think it was okay? I guess I’ll never know. There was no consent. I had to physically push that man off.”

She said she could just see a dull look on Menhei’s face.

“I ran up the stairs to tell my friend and her partner in those moments – I was devastated, shocked. I couldn’t believe what he had done, tears were streaming down my face, my body was shaking. I had been sexually violated.”

Gardaí were called and Ms Waldron had to go to the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit in Waterford.

WORRY

Ms Waldron’s said her then friend, Amanda, was unable to accompany her to the SATU as she had commitments, which made the process even harder for Ms Waldron, who vomited on the way.

“I was a mess going to the sexual assault unit. It was extremely degrading, I felt violated.

“I had to give them the clothing I was wearing. I was lying on the examination table counting the square tiles on the ceiling while sobbing, feeling like a piece of meat getting prodded and swabbed from head to toe, every inch of me checked.

“I had to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases and sexually transmitted infections, I had to have injections and the morning-after pill.”

While Menhei pleaded guilty to sexual assault, Ms Waldron feels he should have pleaded guilty to rape, as he admitted in his statement to penetrating her during the attack.

As she was asleep when it started, Ms Waldron could not conclusively say at the time whether Menhei had penetrated her.

She was told by the DPP before the case that Menhei was willing to plead guilty to sexual assault but would contest a rape charge.

“They said we could pursue it and go for rape but if we do that you’re talking a couple of years and it will be the Central Criminal Court in Dublin and you have to look at the possibility he could get off, it depends on the jury.

“They said I needed to weigh it up and make a decision. After speaking to family, I decided to go for the sexual assault and have a conviction against him.

“If I knew things back then that I do now I probably would have gone for rape. In court, they read out his statement and he admitted that he had sexual intercourse with me, he penetrated me.”

Ms Waldron said she feels Menhei should be locked up for longer, but is glad he is behind bars.

“I’m still happy there was a conviction. I’m happy, well that’s the wrong word, I’m glad that it’s over.

“I think really that the healing only begins after he goes in.”

‘His plan was to get to Turkey and then go to Kosovo and I’d imagine never to be seen again’