Serial sex offender who tried to strangle woman in park appeals conviction over cigarette box DNA

A predatory serial sex offender jailed for attempting to strangle a woman in a Dublin park has argued that DNA evidence found on a cigarette packet near the location of the attack should not have been introduced into his trial.

His barristers today told the Court of Appeal that there was “a fragile circumstantial case” against Slawomir Gierlowski (41) featuring “weak forensic evidence”. Counsel for the State, however, argued that each piece of circumstantial evidence needed to be looked at together.

Gierlowski was previously sentenced in 2018 to 22 and a half years with four years suspended for random outdoor attacks on three other women between 2011 and 2016.

After a Central Criminal Court trial in May 2019 Gierlowski, of Galtymore Drive, Drimnagh, Dublin was convicted of attempted rape, sexual assault and assault causing harm of a fourth victim on the night of December 18, 2010. This attack took place in the city centre and is his first recorded attack.

Sentencing for those offences was adjourned while Gierlowski appealed his 2018 convictions and the severity of that sentence. The Court of Appeal dismissed these appeals and in July 2021, he was sentenced for this offence to a further ten years consecutive to the earlier sentence, giving a total prison sentence of 28 and a half years. He was due to be released in 2037.

Gierlowski was then found guilty by a jury in a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court trial of assault causing harm, false imprisonment and production of an article in relation to the attack on a young mother at Ballymount Park on May 30, 2011.

The court heard he does not accept the verdict of the jury and maintains his innocence. Gierlowski’s DNA and fingerprints were taken as part of an investigation in 2016 into a separate assault and matched samples that were recovered from a flex and a cigarette box in this case.

Having been convicted of this attack, Judge Elma Sheahan extended Gierlowski’s time in custody by a further six years. In appealing this conviction today, Maurice Coffey SC said there was “a fragile circumstantial case” against his client featuring “weak forensic evidence” and an unreliable descriptive identification of the assailant.

He said there were two identification parades where the appellant was not picked out, and the description given was in broad terms. Mr Coffey said that inferences were drawn in the prosecution case, with the appellant interviewed five years after the attack and asked about fingerprints on a cigarette box and flex found by gardaí.

Mr Justice John Edwards said that, while “cigarette boxes are ubiquitous” and discarded as litter all the time, a piece of flex with the plug attached that had been used in the attack was also discarded in the same place. He said that this was not a commonplace item, and as it bore a partial print matching Gierlowski’s, surely it called for an explanation.

Ms Coffey replied that the gardaí were asking someone to account for an item five years after the event. He said the flex was not found in a private crime scene but in a park, where anyone could have picked it up.

Counsel went on to say that where inferences are helpful to the prosecution, the rationale for introducing that evidence is called for. Mr Coffey said that the danger of DNA evidence is that “for a jury, DNA equals guilt”.

“Juries love hearing about DNA,” he said. Mr Coffey said that this piece of evidence was a strand in the prosecution case, which the jury may have given no, some or very high consideration. He argued that the prosecution sought to prove that at the time of the assault, a cigarette box was in the vicinity of the attack that had some connection with the appellant.

Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Karl Finnegan SC said that the cigarette box was not an isolated piece of evidence, so it was necessary to look at circumstantial evidence in a cumulative way.

Mr Finnegan said that the issue of a Marlboro box found near the scene had been put to the appellant, with Gierlowski admitting that he smoked but saying he did not smoke Marlboro. Counsel said that this meant nothing in its own right, but it was tied to the gardaí finding a box of Marlboro in the park with the appellant’s DNA on it.

He was subsequently arrested and his van searched, with a Marlboro box found. Mr Finnegan said this had to be tied in with his denial of smoking them, as well as the evidence of a witness who saw a man smoking near the location of the assault, and the description of the assailant given to gardaí. Counsel also said that the appellant’s fingerprint was on the flex that was found, as was the victim’s DNA, with the woman telling gardaí that the flex was used on her. “The relevance of each piece of circumstantial evidence only becomes apparent when looked at together,” said Mr Finnegan.

Mr Justice Edwards said the court would reserve judgement in the case. At the sentence hearing in July 2022, Garda Detective Inspector Catriona Joyce told Roisin Lacey SC, prosecuting, that on the day in question, the victim left her home at 11am to go for a walk in the nearby park.

The victim was recently married and a young mother. She was walking along a path in a more isolated part of the park when she walked past a man standing in the bushes holding a flex in his hands. On her second loop of the park at around 11.45am, she noticed that the man was standing in the same spot and staring at her. The man turned to face the bushes as she approached before turning back. He ran at her and tried to put the flex around her neck. The victim was pushed to the ground and the man straddled her. She fought back, kicking and shouting. The man tried to put the flex around her neck again, before putting his hands on her throat and starting to squeeze. The victim began to feel light-headed but continued to kick out. Her attacker then tried to pull down her pants and started to punch her face. The man was wearing a silver chain and the victim grabbed this. He stopped punching her, looked around then ran away. The victim managed to call her husband, then ran towards a woman walking nearby. The attacker never spoke to the victim during the assault. The victim was taken to hospital and suffered soft tissue injuries, a swollen nose and bruising.

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