A terrified woman \u201cplayed dead\u201d while being strangled by her housemate before she made an \u201cSOS call\u201d for help, a court has heard.<\/p>\n
Delivery driver Donatas Jankauskas (44) of Woodlawn Close, Santry, Dublin 9, was charged with assaulting the female lodger at his home on May 30th. <\/p>\n
Bail was denied on Monday by Judge \u00c1ine Clancy at Dublin District Court.<\/p>\n
Jankauskas is also accused of connected offences: assault of a Garda, resisting arrest and criminal damage.<\/p>\n
The judge heard the Lithuanian national denies the charges.<\/p>\n
The incident occurred at the accused\u2019s rented home, where Jankauskas was the main tenant who had sublet a room to the woman for the past year.<\/p>\n
Garda Sean Lally opposed bail, telling the judge the case involved \u201can extreme, harrowing assault by means of strangulation\u201d.<\/p>\n
The court heard that just after 4am on Saturday, An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na received an SOS phone call from the lodger, \u201cwho was screaming down the phone for assistance\u201d.<\/p>\n
Two Garda units responded and four officers found the victim in a distressed state.<\/p>\n
Lally told the court there had been a physical struggle and that the accused broke a mirror and a bed. The woman had facial bruising and the room was ransacked, the court heard.<\/p>\n
Jankauskas, who was still at the property, was allegedly intoxicated and aggressive towards garda\u00ed, resisting arrest and attempts to handcuff him.<\/p>\n
Lally said the accused told him to \u201cf*** off\u201d before being taken to Ballymun station.<\/p>\n
The court heard the man became violent while being processed and he kicked another Garda \u201cfull force, causing harm\u201d.<\/p>\n
The woman, with the aid of a Turkish interpreter, told garda\u00ed there was a knock on her door and the accused barged into her room. He \u201cswung her around so her back was to his chest\u201d. <\/p>\n
In her statement, she claimed that the accused put his arm around her, \u201cchoking her and causing her to lose breath\u201d, the court was told.<\/p>\n
Jankauskas allegedly threw her at a mirror and then onto a bed, where she fell onto her back, and the struggle continued. The judge heard the woman tried to bite his finger, but it did not deter the accused and he allegedly continued strangling her.<\/p>\n
Lally said she then decided to play dead, but it had no effect. Eventually, \u201cshe was able to activate an SOS call on her phone and scream down the line\u201d.<\/p>\n
The court heard the incident lasted about six minutes and that the pressure around her neck would increase or decrease as she tried to fight back. <\/p>\n
Also in her statement, she told garda\u00ed she thought she was going to die.<\/p>\n
She did not attend the bail hearing and has moved to temporary emergency accommodation.<\/p>\n
The court heard there were serious Garda fears about possible witness interference or intimidation if released. The judge noted the case was likely to proceed to the Circuit Court, which has wider sentencing powers.<\/p>\n
Lally said imposing conditions would not allay his concerns.<\/p>\n
Defence solicitor Patricia Camilon submitted that her client, who did not address the court, contests the case and could be released on conditions, including a no-contact order. <\/p>\n
Camilon emphasised that the complainant was now in a new private and protected accommodation.<\/p>\n
The solicitor also stressed her client had the presumption of innocence and had lived at the same address for six years.<\/p>\n
However, the application was refused and he was remanded in custody to appear at Cloverhill District Court on Wednesday. Legal aid was granted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A terrified woman \u201cplayed dead\u201d while being strangled by her housemate before she made an \u201cSOS call\u201d for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-477885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}