A DELIVERY DRIVER who followed a woman home before assaulting her on her boyfriend’s doorstep during a “sinister and bizarre” incident has been jailed for two years.

George Boyce told Letterkenny Circuit Court in Co Donegal that he could not remember anything about the incident.

Boyce, 39, said he woke up after a boozy St Patrick’s Day in 2022 with blood on his trousers, missing his glasses and having felt like he had walked a marathon.

The court was told the terrifying incident happened just weeks after teacher Ashling Murphy was brutally murdered in Offaly and that the case had been all over the media at the time.

Boyce had tried to strike up a conversation with the passing woman at 3am in Letterkenny but when she refused to engage with him he followed her.

The terrified woman thought she was safe when she reached her boyfriend’s home at Beechwood Park but Boyce grabbed her and dragged her to the ground.

The woman managed to get the door open and began shouting to her boyfriend but Boyce put his hand over her mouth to prevent her from raising the alarm.

When the woman’s boyfriend emerged he managed to get phone footage of the accused before he fled on foot.

The victim was left terrified, her jeans had been ripped and there was blood coming from her after she had cut her knee and hands during the attack.

The woman’s boyfriend alerted gardaí and handed over camera footage of the suspect leading to gardaí issuing an appeal locally about the incident.

A few days later a local Garda stopped a man driving and thought he fitted the description of the suspect.

George Boyce, of Fernhill, Letterkenny, was arrested and questioned about the incident.

The court was told that when arrested Boyce never denied being involved in the incident but he never said it was him either.

He appeared before the court on 7 June 2023 and pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to a woman at Beechwood Park in Letterkenny on 17 March 2022.

A charge of false imprisonment was also taken into account.

Victim impact

The court was told that the victim was currently studying but that her mother was in court.

A victim impact statement was read out in court on her behalf by Garda Sergeant Maurice Doyle.

She told how her life has changed forever since her ordeal and that she still has the scars from the incident which she cannot speak to her friends about.

She said she used to see the good in everyone but that now she sees everyone as a threat and simple tasks like walking to college is a huge hurdle for her and that she is afraid to go to sleep.

She added that she finds herself “zoning out of life” but still recalls her attacker putting his hand over her mouth which she found a “revolting experience”.

She was also forced to repeat that year at college because of her ordeal meaning that she lost touch with many of her friends.

And she also said she now has a lot of anger which was misdirected at the people she loves.

She has not slept in the house outside which the incident happened, a house she said she once loved.

The court heard that Boyce has six previous convictions for public order and traffic incidents.

Barrister for the accused, Ms Fiona Crawford, BL, said her client had drunk five or six pints of beer after going out at about 7pm to watch a match.

However, when he woke the next day, he could not find his glasses, had blood on his clothing and his watch showed he had walked 20,000 steps and his legs were sore like he had walked a marathon but had no explanation for any of this.

His Revolut account showed he had also been in both McClafferty’s Bar and the Orchard Inn in Letterkenny but he had no recollection of this.

When interviewed he said he had no recollection of doing what was alleged but admitted that the evidence was there to say that he did and that it must not have been nice for anybody to have been put in that situation.

Crawford said the incident was very bizarre and out of character for her client and that the Probation Report showed that Boyce showed victim insight and had expressed remorse at the time but honestly could not recall the incident.

She added that her client accepts the victim must have been “terrified” and also noted that just weeks before the incident a young teacher (Ashling Murphy) had been murdered and that this was in the media at the time.

She said her client avoids going out and about, is a hard-working man, was very frank with Gardai but that none of this excused his behaviour on the night.

A sum of €1,000 had been offered a token of remorse to the victim but although she had refused it, Boyce wanted it to be forwarded to charity.

Crawford added that her client was “ashamed, apologetic and embarrassed” by what had happened.

Sentencing

Passing sentence Judge John Aylmer said this was a violent attack which took place at 3am.

He noted the woman had suffered physically during the incident by way of cuts but that he said far more grievous harm was caused by way of the extreme fright caused to the victim as well as to her sense of security.

He accepted the accused was intoxicated at the time but that this was no excuse and placed the incident on the upper end of the scale of such offences and said it merited a sentence of four years in prison before mitigation.

In mitigation he said Boyce was a working man who had entered an early plea, he had been very cooperative and this appeared to be out of character for Boyce.

He noted however, that Boyce had been charged with a count of threatening and abusive behaviour during an incident in January 2024 since the Probation report was compiled in October 2023.

He noted that this incident, again under the influence of alcohol, was of concern to the court.

Having regard to all these mitigating factors, Judge Aylmer said he was reducing the sentence to one of three years in prison.

He then said the question then arose if some or all of this sentence should be suspended with regard to the good character of the accused between 2006 and the date of this offence.

However, he said the court took the view that this incident was too serious to suspend the entirety of the sentence.

He did suspend the final 12 months of the three year sentence meaning Boyce will serve two years in jail on the understanding that he refrains from alcohol and be of good behaviour.