2022-06-28 · Dublin
Woman bundled into van and told she'd be buried after drug-fuelled attack by ex-garda
In a 2022 court hearing, former Garda Stephen Cooper (37) and accomplice Stephen McGrath (37) were sentenced for drug‑ and alcohol‑fuelled assaults on two women. Cooper forced a woman to undergo a "strip search" after claiming she stole drugs, threatened her, and inserted his fingers into her body. McGrath then violently assaulted a second woman, kicking, punching, and tearing her hair, while both men threatened to take her to the mountains and bury her. They attempted to place her in a van, but she resisted and was ultimately left in the footwell. Cooper pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to the first woman and to threats against the second, while McGrath pleaded guilty to assault causing harm, sexual assault, and weapon production. Judge Martin Nolan imposed a three‑year sentence for Cooper's assault and a three‑year sentence for the threats, to run consecutively.