Thursday, November 10, 2005
Where's the Community Spirit?
From today's Independent:
CCTV footage may help to catch city bus sex attacker
DUBLIN Bus has passed on digital CCTV footage of a sex assault on a young woman. The attack happened as she travelled home on a bus from the city centre on Tuesday evening. Gardai at Store Street will today review the footage after Dublin Bus identified the correct discs containing evidence of the 20-year-old's ordeal.
The woman, who does not want to be identified, told of her terrifying experience after she boarded the 39 bus on D'Olier Street at 4.30pm to make her way home to Castleknock.
She found herself pinned against the window of the bus by a man whom she believed to be in his 30s or 40s and who was touching her while at the same time touching himself beneath a coat.
"The way it happened, I was too scared to say anything. I was crying.
"He pinned me up against the window and squashed me," the young woman said.
She texted her mother while she was on the bus to tell her what was happening and, even though she was visibly upset, nobody on the bus moved to intervene or to see what was going on.
"It was horrific. I didn't know what to do. People were looking at me and staring. I was crying - I didn't known what he was doing and I couldn't move," she said.
While the man continued to fondle himself, he pretended he was falling asleep and the ordeal went on for about 25 minutes before she got off the bus, she said.
She said she would definitely press charges if the man could be identified.
Teams of Dublin Bus personnel spent yesterday reviewing digital footage in a bid to identify the correct CCTV footage from the bus.
A spokeswoman for Dublin Bus said it had helped that the young woman had kept her ticket and they could ascertain which bus and what time she had got on.
The company yesterday identified the CCTV disc in question and have passed it on to gardai at Store Street.
It is understood that the young woman and her mother, who raised the incident initially in a bid to stop the same thing from happening to other young women or girls, will view the tape with investigators from Store Street garda station today.
Dublin Bus will also take the step of going through the footage to see if images of the man can be distributed to depots in an effort to identify him.
Last January the Department of Transport provided €2.8m to Dublin Bus to upgrade its CCTV systems.
CCTV footage may help to catch city bus sex attacker
DUBLIN Bus has passed on digital CCTV footage of a sex assault on a young woman. The attack happened as she travelled home on a bus from the city centre on Tuesday evening. Gardai at Store Street will today review the footage after Dublin Bus identified the correct discs containing evidence of the 20-year-old's ordeal.
The woman, who does not want to be identified, told of her terrifying experience after she boarded the 39 bus on D'Olier Street at 4.30pm to make her way home to Castleknock.
She found herself pinned against the window of the bus by a man whom she believed to be in his 30s or 40s and who was touching her while at the same time touching himself beneath a coat.
"The way it happened, I was too scared to say anything. I was crying.
"He pinned me up against the window and squashed me," the young woman said.
She texted her mother while she was on the bus to tell her what was happening and, even though she was visibly upset, nobody on the bus moved to intervene or to see what was going on.
"It was horrific. I didn't know what to do. People were looking at me and staring. I was crying - I didn't known what he was doing and I couldn't move," she said.
While the man continued to fondle himself, he pretended he was falling asleep and the ordeal went on for about 25 minutes before she got off the bus, she said.
She said she would definitely press charges if the man could be identified.
Teams of Dublin Bus personnel spent yesterday reviewing digital footage in a bid to identify the correct CCTV footage from the bus.
A spokeswoman for Dublin Bus said it had helped that the young woman had kept her ticket and they could ascertain which bus and what time she had got on.
The company yesterday identified the CCTV disc in question and have passed it on to gardai at Store Street.
It is understood that the young woman and her mother, who raised the incident initially in a bid to stop the same thing from happening to other young women or girls, will view the tape with investigators from Store Street garda station today.
Dublin Bus will also take the step of going through the footage to see if images of the man can be distributed to depots in an effort to identify him.
Last January the Department of Transport provided €2.8m to Dublin Bus to upgrade its CCTV systems.
# posted by Name @ 11:53 a.m. 
