A 27-year-old has been jailed for 18 months for her part in a scam where she and another woman lured a middle-aged man to a house with a promise of a threesome only to take off his trousers and rob him of nearly €1,000.
Mary Williamson, from Bantry, Co Cork, pleaded guilty five years ago to demanding money with menaces from the then 55-year-old man from Bantry on September 5th, 2010. The case was adjourned and she failed to show up in court.
At Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday, Garda Eoin Concannon said he had been on patrol in Bantry in the early hours of the day in question when he came across the man arguing with Williamson and another woman, Martina McGrath.
The man had met the two women in a chip shop and they invited him back to their house and invited him to take part in a threesome. The court heard that, one arrival, he declined the offer but they persisted. The women managed to get his trousers down and stole €920 in cash from his pocket.
Mr Concannon told the court that the man tried to get his money back but the two women became very aggressive. He was told that they would get male relatives who were in the house to beat him up if he did not leave.
A short time before this incident, a man in his 20s was found in a distressed state on the Glengarriff Road in Bantry. He told gardaí he had been robbed of €40 and a mobile phone and slashed on the arm with a knife by two women.
He described the two women to gardaí and said he had met them in the Waterfront Bar. Gardaí called to the bar and CCTV footage helped them to identify Williamson and McGrath, said Mr Concannon.
Pleaded guilty
Williamson pleaded guilty in 2011 to demanding money with menaces from the man in his 50s and robbery from the man in his 20s. The case was adjourned to allow her to be treated for a chronic drug and alcohol addiction.
She had failed to attend court on a number of occasions since and various bench warrants were issued, including one in 2014 on which she was now appearing, said Mr Concannon.
Defence barrister Brendan Kelly said Williamson had had a difficult upbringing and she had spent time in foster care. Since these incidents she has had some "intermittent success" in dealing with her drug addiction, he added.
Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said that his now-retired colleague, Judge Patrick Moran had given her every opportunity to go for treatment for her drug addiction when he adjourned the case in 2011 but it was clear the addiction remained.
He sentenced Williamson to three years in jail but suspended the last 18 months on condition that she remain under the supervision of the Probation Service for two years and attend residential drug treatment if so directed.
McGrath was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail with 18 months suspended by Judge David Riordan in 2013 for her part in the same two offences.
