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Updated at 2.10pm
GARDAÍ HAVE ISSUED a renewed appeal for information on a serious assault on a first-year university student in Maynooth on Sunday night.
Kym Owens was walking back to her college digs in Moyglare Abbey, an estate adjoining the north campus of the university, when the attack took place.
The 18-year-old, from Castleblayney in Monaghan, suffered serious injuries in the attack and has been receiving treatment in the intensive care unit of Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown.
Speaking at the scene of the attack today Superintendent Gerry Wall of Leixlip Garda Station said investigators weren’t yet able to say whether one or more attackers were involved.
He also made an appeal for passengers from a bus that travelled through Castleblayney to Maynooth to get in contact.
The attack took place between 8.15 and 8.30pm on Sunday night, Superintendent Wall said. Although the estate is well lit, there were foggy conditions at the time, affecting visibility.
“Kym travelled on [the] A2B bus service starting out in Monaghan town on Sunday evening. The bus travelled to Carrickmacross and into Castleblayney arriving there around 6.15pm,” Wall said.
The bus arrived in Maynooth at around 8.15pm, he said.
Kym then made her way from the town to the estate “when she was seriously assaulted and left unconscious on the footpath here”.
My appeal here today, and An Garda Siochána’s appeal, is for witnessses to come forward – people who may have been on the bus, who travelled on the bus. Did you get on or off that bus? Did you arrive in the bus in Maynooth that evening?
Wall said investigators also wanted to speak to people who may have been in the estate that night between 7pm and 9pm, and who witnessed anything suspicious.
The perpetrator or perpetrators may well have been in a very agitated state. They may have had marks on their clothing, marks on their body.
Any information, however trivial it may seem, should be given to gardaí, Wall said.
He gave a description of the student as being 5′ 3″ in height with long brown hair. On the night in question she was wearing a dark green coat with a hood. She had a red hoodie under the coat, and was wearing black jeans and white Converse runners.
She was carrying a distinctive green and yellow bag.
NUI Maynooth said yesterday that the college community was “very disturbed” at the assault.
“The crime is quite violent in its nature,” Superintendent Wall said today.
“This town has a population of over 11,000 students. It’s a very good town,” he said, noting that residents “interact very well” with the student population.
This event is a very rare occurrence and I want to assure the people living here in Maynooth town, in Moyglare Abbey, that we will give them our fullest support in our policing of the area.
He said he was planning to meet with the students’ union later this evening to reiterate that Maynooth was a safe area.
Asked whether there was anything stolen during the attack, he said there were some aspects of the investigation that detectives needed to keep confidential for the time being.
Asked if the victim may have known her attacker, he said he couldn’t rule out the possibility.
No arrests have been made as yet.
Information can be given via:
- With reporting by Daragh Brophy
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Please God let them find who did this.
That poor girl, with the dark and the fear she probably couldn’t even register a description, he could be any size or any age, it’s going to raise a lot of fear and suspicion in the area. All women in those estates are indirect victims until he is caught.
@Greg Blake: How do you know it was a he?
@Mohammed Mohammed:
Vast majority of violent crime is carried out by men. Logical to assume it’s a man, especially considering the extent of her injuries.
@Veronica:
Using that same logic of yours Veronica, it makes perfect sense that men dominate the top CEO, scientist, engineering & financial positions in the world as men are predominant in the top percentile of the IQ distribution.
@Mohammed, because she was hit with enough force to break her jaw, break her nose and smash both eye sockets. Don’t think there’s to many woman capable of inflicting that much damage with just their fist.
@Fred Johnson:
Not very good at critical thinking, are you Fred.
Mohammed
Do you want to place a bet on it. I will bet any amount of money that it was a male. I will happily put my house on it. You name the amount and I will meet you at a solicitors office and we can do it legally. If no one is ever caught then no bet but if a successful conviction is made then we have our bet.
I know of women who could easily cause those injuries. All it takes is the injured party to be knocked to the ground and receive a few kicks to the face. There is also the possibility that she was set upon by a group of people. Also the possibility of a weapon being used. Can’t rule anything out until this is fully investigated. Thoughts are with the poor girl I hope she makes a full recovery.
Gerry
I completely agree it could be a woman and that a woman could cause those injuries. However, in my 48 years on this planet I have read far too many news stories about crimes such as this one and in my experience the likelihood is that the attacker is a male. Yes I could be wrong but I am willing to take that risk and make the assumption it was a male attacker
Who are these ghouls red thumbing this comment?
Nick, does it really matter if the assailant was male or female once the dirt back is caught and brought to justice? Making silly bets online with anonymous people doesn’t really help??
What exactly do you think will happen to these skumm? A slap on the wrist and free counseling/emotional support is all that awaits them. Worst thing is that our justice system will only get more lenient if liberals get their way.
Whoever has done this, is probably a Psychopath who has also become violent. Likely has some history of violence already, including toward animals, possibly even abused themself as a child. Let’s hope they are caught quickly.
@Jason Ebbs:anyone swinging an hammer regardless of gender size or strength could inflict such injuries upon the poor victim.
@Dave Murray:It is actually very valid discussion showing inequality of popular opinions about males and females. As we are assigning all bad generalisations to males nut if there is even a single try of doing same about females it is cut straight away. Same with negative opinions about races – you can say Whites are useless in basketball but you can’t say anything about other races. Same about religion – you can point weakness of Catholicism but you are not allowed to point other religions.
@Veronica: women abuse as much as men do Veronica and that’s been known since the Sixties when Erin Pizzey released the data from Chiswick women’s refuge and the Strauss Gelles and Murray studies from the US also confirmed it as a fact. The highest rate of victim prevalence in domestic abuse is amongst bi-sexual women, and the second highest rate is amongst lesbians. These are the data. This crime could as easily have been committed by a woman as a man and the reported injuries might suggest a crime passionel by some jealous rival wielding an hammer. This is of course purely speculation but based on logic inference and scientific axioms nonetheless.
@John O’Driscoll: What data are you talking about? Do you have any actual numbers to back up that women perpetrate more violent crime than men do? Everything I’ve ever seen, and I’ve read quite a lot about it, indicate that men are the sex that commit more violent crime than women.
>Considering the age and gender breakdown of those convicted for Attempts or threats to murder, assaults, harassments and related offences in 2011, 509 were committed by males under the age of 25 while 83 were committed by females in this age bracket.
From the above link I posted.
>gay men were at greater risk of experiencing all types of SSDV, with the exception of sexual DV, than their lesbian counterparts (Messinger, 2011)
-http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0092623X.2014.958792
I’m not saying that men aren’t abused by partners, be they female or male, but I am saying its disingenuous to suggest that men don’t commit the majority of violent crime
Says a lot about you that you’re placing bets based on this poor girls misfortune.
When will we learn on this site not to jump the gun. The viciousness of this attack would make you think the perp knew the victim and wanted to cause the victim as much damage as possible maybe even death. This is a dangerous person/group that needs to be caught. Hopefully she will make a good recovery and be able to help the Gardai.
@John. A hammer ? There’s been multiple media agencies running this story and there’s been no mention of any weapons been used, unless something very recently has been discovered ?
@Deborah Behan.I am thinking the same as you.I don’t think it was a random attack.
@Cen Sored: You got a new handle, troll, but not a new hobby-horse. For goodness sake, get a life and stop repeating yourself ad infinitum with the same old tosh about “liberals”, whatever you mean by that word. If Ireland is too “liberal” for you, why not try living in North Korea or Saudi-Arabia for a while?
In the meantime, a young woman has been savagely assaulted and the least you could do is wish her a speedy recovery rather than making propaganda for your own insane purpose.
You really are a very ignorant crackpot, too thick even to ask yourself why our prisons are crammed to capacity if all criminals ever get from our justice system is a slap on the wrist. EEjit!
@Mohammed Mohammed: Yawn…
@Veronica: I specifically said women ABUSE as much as men. The context is domestic abuse but the wider implication is that women are just as capable of violence and assault as men in other contexts too. We can read about it and see it with increasing frequency in court reports in UK and Ireland and the mroe lurid press. Google some of the names I’ve cited in context above and you’ll find respected academic research that has withstood years of assault by partisan groups that proves my point. I am so sick of people in this country hitching their politicised and heavily subsidised and multi-cause bandwagons to tragedy and misery suffered by victims, regardless of gender, of everything from medical incompetence in dealing with galloping sepsis and septicaemia to this latest appalling brutal atrocity perpetrated against an innocent young person away from the safety of her family home for the first time in a town that doesn’t even have a full time garda on duty at the station despite the presence of a massive population including transients in the region of 8,000. This is not a gender issue this is a crime that could as easily have a perpetrator of one gender as another.
@Jason Ebbs: the severity of the injuries reported would indicate either an MMA fighter or more likely a weapon. I’m thinking in a foggy night an hammer would be easily concealed beneath a coat and readily deployed to wreak smashed eye sockets and jaw, avulsion of most teeth, smashed zygomic arch, and then concealed for ready disposal as soon as away from the scene of the crime.
@Deborah Behan: the nature of the facial injuries reported and the non-theft of belongings plus the sheer savagery makes me think it is personal. The poor girl never had a chance. Foggy night bad lighting no cops and a savage lying in wait. I only hope she went unconscious quickly.
What kind of twisted headbangers do we have in this country?
@Dave Murray: There are lots of them in every country. Fortunately, most of them never go any further than spewing out their sick fantasies on discussion boards like this one.
Im a bit confused, a crime has been committed and hopefully the Garda will catch this animal, but even though a crime has taken place and a Garda investigation underway, the comment section is open, yet when a ticket tout is arrested in a different jurisdiction on the other side of the world ……comment section is closed ????
Am i missing something here ?
@TheBrain FromDublin: You can’t really say anything to prejudice an investigation with no suspects but you can prejudice a case where someone has been charged. Pretty obvious really.
Because one of them is part of the elite golden circle of Ireland, the other is not. Anyway, hopefully that person heals and her attacker caught.
There is an investigation underway however there is no legal case pending as there are no suspects under arrest so the comments section can be open.
@Vincent Wallace: I understand that but how can influence a case that is happening in a different jurisdiction, by a comment i make in Ireland. There was no crime committed in Ireland but there was a suspected crime committed in Brazil. If a Brazilian made a comment on a Brazilian news site regarding a case that was happening in Ireland …..would that be allowed in Brazil or be seen as interfering in a criminal case?
@TheBrain FromDublin: Defence lawyers will use anything to get their clients off. A comment on an Irish site could well be used by a defence lawyer to get his client off in another country.
I really hope this young Lady recovers quickly and the person/s responsible for this are caught quickly.
@Michael Clinton: so do I. bcos seems maybe we’ve either got a one off grudge perpetrator (note her possessions were not stolen apparently) of incredible vici0usness or we’ve got a serial monster after their first (known) attack, ditto; who’s a continuing and now greater yet danger to any woman or indeed man. I think the more likely the former, and as a dad who lives not too far away from where this appalling thing happened; who has daughters, I pray not the latter. I just hope they’re caught soon.
Poor girl, hoping for a quick recovery.
I hope to Christ whoever did this is caught and gets seven shades of shite knocked out of them, then and only then break their eyesockets then their jaw and then knock a few teeth out. Red thumb away PC brigade.
@Agrippa: So one psychopath isn’t enough for you? You want someone else to be brutally beaten up as well, although Irish law does not provide for that? And who should do the beating? Perhaps you would like to be one of them? Does the thought of that give you a thrill, perhaps even sexual, and have you talked to anyone about it?
When the perpetrator is caught, he/she deserves to be imprisoned or confined in a secure psychiatric facility, not used as a focus for Agrippa’s sick fantasies.
I am not a psychopath but would gladly do it as would most other normal men out there not a hipster snowflake millennial/bleeding heart liberal which is what you sound like. Unfortunately the criminal justice system will let this girl and her family down when/if there is a conviction, perpetrator might spend a year or so in prison sucking up huge state resources and do you think will be rehabilitated afterwards. And no, l would not get my kicks sexually from inflicting violence on an individual, and if you don’t believe just go and ask your Ma you holier than though troll!
@Agrippa: Good, I hope getting all that off your chest relieved some pressure, but you are still an ignorant bully, and a violent coward who fantasies about inflicting cruel punishment on others. That makes you no better than those who attack innocent young women at night. Insult me all you like, if that is what you are into, but do you really think I would care in the slightest what an uneducated slob and blowhard pub bore like you thought about anything?
You really demonstrate what a lout and piece of skum you are when you bring my mother into it. She died in 1989 and was a very fine and civilised lady. Maybe yours was, too, which makes me wonder how you turned out to be such an oafish creep, who talks more like someone who was dragged up by a right slapper.
If you had even a modicum of education, you would know that Ireland is still a country governed under the rule of law. The only punishments that our society permits are those ordered by a court of law, and in accordance with law. If you do not like that, you have the same opportunity as everyone else – a vote – to change it. There is no place in our society for the kind of vigilante justice that you advocate. People who do the kind of things you recommend are criminals, just like whoever attacked that young woman, and the likes of you who egg them on are just as sick and criminal.
Yawn! You are way off the mark but if that’s what makes you happy. Btw if this happened to your daughter would you accept whatever punishment was handed out by the cjs?
@Agrippa: Yes. One either believes in the rule of law or becomes what you are, an advocate of taking the law into your own hands through criminal action.
You must be a really foolish person if you think you would be better off living in a country where there was no law, no courts, no right to a fair trial, and thugs like you inflicted savage punishments on whomever you thought was guilty.
However, I think all those gory descriptions of the punishments you would like meted out are just symptoms of some kind of deep frustration in someone who is an impotent loser in real life.
Indeed, I rather pity you. Now yawn again.
Perhaps a jealous female either, hopefully this girl can help a small bit, God bless her, xx
@janeen territt: What girl can help? What are you talking about??
@Dave Murray: It’s obvious to anyone but the terminally oligophrenic that the girl janeen territt is referring to is the victim, who will hopefully soon have recovered enough to give the Gardaí more information.
Let us hope that it proves to be someone who knew that particular victim from earlier (even if she didn’t necessarily know him/her) and that it isn’t a purely random attack. The latter alternative would be a real cause for concern in Maynooth with all its female students, and also totally out of character for the pleasant and peaceful town where I spent five years.
@janeen: Perhaps it was a female assailant, but that’s unlikely. It’s probably a male, white, young. Like myself. That’s usually the profile.
Thank Christ I can say what’s likely workout being accused of prejudice. If this was the US I’d be condemned for using this sort of reasoning.
We discussed this last jight on the way home from college – the only motive I could think was either a. The young girl rejected the advances of an individual or 2. He was rejected by someone else and sought revenge against a woman, any woman. Very twisted. I only surmise this because of the particular facial injuries that she received. Mostly to the face.
Three she was set on by a number of youths who where out looking for trouble girls and boys. Truth is no one will no until he/she or more are cought.
You make a good and relevant point Vincent however unofficially the Garda are looking for 1 individual.
@LRB: Unofficially?
The rumour from a source on campus says one guy judging by cctv.
No.1 would imply the victim knew or was familiar with the perpetrator to some degree, even very briefly.,
No.3 It was a depraved person who either randomly came across a vulnerable victim or similar who was scouting the area for same.
The perpetrator does not seem to have satisfied either a robbery or sexual intention and may have thus compromised their identity unless as some have suggested it was a person (s) randomly beating up on a vulnerable victim for some kind of prevented pleasure in which case again they may have compromised their identity.
Either way the sooner this person(s) is caught the better in case they strike again and let’s hope the young girl makes a full recovery.
@LRB: ” individual or individuals with scuffed clothing”
I don’t Vincent, it’s a strange case all the same. Random but probably not??? Horrific. The whole town is perturbed by it. Maynooth really is quite safe normally so people are on edge.
Twisted savages!! Cowardly dog or dogs!! Poor girl. I hope she makes a complete recovery. I hope the police find whoever attacked her.
The focus seems to be on the bus and its passengers……strikes me that there is a link to some other passenger. Either ways, I wish the victim a full and speedy recovery and the perpetrator a long and painful illness.
Reminds me of the Raonaid Murray case, no one ever arrested for that. I really hope they have better luck with this case. Speedy recovery to this poor girl.
I hope they find the person/people responsible for this horrific assault and that she has a speedy recovery..
Feel so much for her, this is a road you wouldn’t be too hesitant to walk down at 8 o’clock at night, having done it myself and lived in Maynooth for my undergrad. Wishing her all the strength in the world coming out the other side of this <3
Also, can we man Maynooth Garda station full time please?!? From personal experience, you can sense the lack of Garda presence, regardless of how safe the town feels on a day-to-day.
Thoughts and prayers are with you Kym and family x
I hope the poor girl recovers quickly. I also hope that when The Gardaí catch the culprits that they drop them off in that girls home town and announce the time and date they are to do so. These animals will never see justice otherwise.
I know who ever did this will be caught soon, and I’d hope they can salute their family who have to live with this, because who ever did this will be escorted off and torchured pretty soon. I really hope the family get justice after this. I’ll be in the court watching.
Was there no cctv on the bus?
not the bus. fog was bad off the bus. bus had cctv
What a country!
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