Man tried to coerce two girls (13) into car on St Patrick’s Day

SCENE Two 13-year-old girls were coerced to get into a car close to Ballyhaunis Train Station. The case was heard in court last week. Pic: Google

Family of one girl found car and surrounded it before man emerged brandishing a knife

TWO 13-year-old girls were followed by two men in a car in Ballyhaunis and coerced to get into the car on St Patrick’s Day, a sitting of Castlebar District Court heard last week.
Elvis Mikulic (26) of 4 Manor Brook, Ballyhaunis, was one of two men who were arrested in connection to the harassment of the two teenage girls as they walked towards their homes on March 17, 2018. The other man fled the jurisdiction before he could be charged.
Mr Mikulic, a Croatian national, pleaded guilty to harassment as well as possession of a knife and threatening and insulting behaviour in relation to incidents that all occurred on the same date.
Inspector Dave Jordan told the court that at 6.10pm, the two girls were walking towards Cherrivale in Ballyhaunis when a silver Mercedes car came behind them. The men in the car started to wave and beep the horn at them, telling the girls to get into the car.
The girls continued to walk, and a short time later noticed the same car parked in front of the train station. The men beeped at them and gestured to them to get into the car. The car continued to follow them, and the men whistled at them and flashed the lights at them.
Insp Jordan said the girls were followed for a length of over 500 metres over a ten to fifteen minute period before they ran home and told their parents what had happened.

Threats
The court heard that up to ten relations of one of the girls went looking for the two men, and Inspector Jordan said that the defendant threatened to fight them, and spat at the window of their van.
He added that at 6.30pm on Main Street in Ballyhaunis, Mr Mikulic emerged from the car with a knife and brandished it at three of the relatives and shouted at them to fight.
At 6.40pm, Gardaí stopped the Mercedes car on the Knock Road in Ballyhaunis and located the knife under the passenger seat. Inps Jordan described the knife as a kitchen knife with a three-and-a-half-inch blade.
Mr Evan O’Dwyer, solicitor for the defendant, said his client was the passenger in the car and that he had drunk ‘copious amounts of alcohol’ on the day. Mr O’Dwyer said that his client had not initiated the incident with the two teenagers, but he accepted his responsibilities and was embarrassed.
In respect to the knife, he said that the family of one of the two girls surrounded the car and he brandished it with the sole purpose of warding off an already volatile situation. He said he was co-operative to gardaí and had made a fulsome admission to them.
He added that Mr Mikulic worked as a plumber in Ballyhaunis and had no previous convictions in Ireland or Croatia. He asked Judge Fiona Lydon to take into consideration that he had stayed in the country while the co-defendant had fled.

Anxiety
A victim-impact statement was given by one of the girls, who stated she was getting treatment for anxiety and was now very nervous in public as a result of what happened.
Judge Lydon described the whole incident as highly suspicious, with an attempt to coerce the two girls into the car and having a knife for no good reason. She said that although Mr Mikulic was before the court on a very serious charge, she had not been given a good reason for why the situation had occurred.
She told the defendant that she was seriously considering imposing a custodial sentence, but she asked for a probation report before finalising a sentence. The case was adjourned until May 21.