Student relives her stalking nightmare
A former Galway student has spoken out publicly for the first time on the terror she endured when she was stalked by another student who broke into her apartment and attacked a flat mate with a hammer.
Eve McDowell was a first-year student at University of Galway when second-year electronic engineering student Igor Lewandowski became obsessed with her in 2019 after they were briefly introduced by friends.
He started calling into the clothes shop she worked in, began to follow her, hiding in bushes and behind parked cars.
Eve tells the documentary, Stalked on Virgin Media One, that she initially thought she was going mad and she must be imagining it.
But Lewandowski’s stalking worsened and, on some occasions, he followed her all day and into the night.
It was when he went to extreme lengths to mask his appearance, shaving off his beard, hair and eyebrows that she went to the Gardaí. But she felt she was taken seriously and was shocked to discover there was no stalking specific legislation in Ireland to protect her at the time.
After being harassed incessantly over a 17-day period in May 2019, the stalking only stopped after he broke into her first-floor apartment through a balcony window and attacked her housemate, Alison Buicke, as she slept on a couch. He hit her on the head and arms with a silver claw hammer. She fended off the blows with her duvet and raised the alarm.
Lewandowski fled, jumping from the balcony onto shrubbery below and was found by Gardaí crawling along a road half a kilometre away after spraining his ankle in the jump.
Lewandowski pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary and harassment and was sentenced to seven years in prison, with the final two years suspended.
Caption: Eve McDowell.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play. Stalked airs on Virgin Media One on Monday, February 12, at 9pm.