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.
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- With reporting by Daragh Brophy
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