Woman’s ex lay in wait to tie her up and beat her in horror ordeal

Alan McEvoy, of Carrigacurra, Valleymount, Co Wicklow, was remanded in custody by Judge Martina Baxter and will be sentenced in May.

Evidence of events that happened at the victim’s home in Tulfarris village, near Blessington, Co Wicklow, on the evening of May 21, 2016 and into the following morning and afternoon were outlined by Det Gda Patrick Twomey.

Dental nurse Anna Oberska had been in a three-year relationship with McEvoy, which had ended 16 months earlier.

In a moving victim statement, Ms Oberska said the ordeal had ruined her life, and she thanked the investigation team for their work on the case.

After an earlier incident that day in which McEvoy harassed Ms Oberska at her home, she arrived at her home after work at 6pm.

The court heard she was “settling in for the night and watching Netflix” when McEvoy “suddenly appeared out of nowhere” after he lay in wait in her house after illegally gaining access.

He was dressed all in black and wearing latex gloves. He had a pair of her leggings on and was not wearing shoes.

He grabbed the victim and assaulted her, and during the course of the attack he punched her in the head as she lay on the floor.

He tied her hands behind her back with cable ties and then undressed her in a bathroom when she said she needed to go to the bathroom.

Her legs were then tied together, and she vomited during the attack.

Det Gda Twomey gave evidence that throughout the attack, McEvoy told Ms Oberska she was under threat from the IRA and that she “needed to stay with him” to protect her as well as her ex-husband and the child they had together.

Among other threats were that “a crew” were ready and had located and were ready to kill her mother in Poland.

The court heard that as the ordeal continued, McEvoy, who knew Ms Oberska had a fear of needles, produced syringes and threatened he would inject her with acid.

The court heard that in an attempt to calm the situation, the victim agreed to go back into a relationship with him and he eventually untied her hands and lay beside her in bed, but not before putting duct tape over the handles of the door in the room.

Evidence was also given that McEvoy went though her mobile phone and demanded explanations of who she had been contacting as well as “taking command of the phone” and sending texts to another male who Ms Oberska had been in contact with.

He also cut off the dental uniform she had been wearing with a knife and burnt it in a stove.

Photos produced in court showed blood at the scene, and when gardaí searched the property they found duct tape and latex gloves in the stove, with McEvoy’s fingerprints and DNA on them.

The following day, after finally getting an opportunity to get away from McEvoy, Ms Oberska made a complaint to gardaí in Tallaght.

At around the same time, McEvoy made a call to Det Gda Twomey at Blessington garda station, who he previously knew, and told him he was calling to inform him that his ex-partner was going to make a “fabricated complaint” against him.

McEvoy then gave the detective a false account of what had happened at the property in Tulfarris, in which he claimed the victim had self-harmed.

Det Gda Twomey invited McEvoy to the station, but in the meantime had been informed by garda colleagues that Ms Oberska had made a complaint.

When McEvoy arrived at the station, he produced two text messages from his mobile phone, which he stated would prove his innocence.

His phone was then seized as evidence and gardaí later established these were “fake messages” sent while he was in possession of Ms Oberska’s mobile during the attack.

A search of McEvoy’s home found three pairs of underwear owned by the victim, including one in the jeans he was wearing when he was initially searched by officers at the scene.

The victim had noticed that underwear had gone missing from her home without explanation.

Photos were found on McEvoy’s phone of the victim’s personal diary without her knowledge on up to four occasions when she was not aware he was in her property.

Evidence was also given of 73 unsolicited emails McEvoy sent the victim and of a number of phone calls he made to her employers and people known to her employment.

During these calls, he either impersonated a garda or a private detective while falsely claiming a European Arrest Warrant was in place for her arrest for welfare fraud offences.