A woman who was sexually assaulted as she walked to her local gym on an August morning last year has told a court she feared she was going to be raped.At Ennis Circuit Court, the 19-year-old offender, with addresses in Limerick and Shannon, Co Clare, pleaded guilty to the sexual assault of the woman on August 16th, 2025. The incident took place 15 days after he had committed a stalking offence against a female airport worker at another location in Shannon.In the case of the sexual assault, the woman had got off a bus to meet a friend at a gym in Shannon at around 9.45am on August 16th.The teenager – aged 18 at the time and high on a cocktail of drugs and alcohol – had been on the same bus as the woman. He followed her as she walked on a footbridge at Drumgeely that crosses the main road to Shannon Airport.Counsel for the State, Sarah Jane Comerford, said the woman was on the second level of the footbridge when the accused grabbed her backside “really, really tight”.Comerford said he then pushed the woman forward into the steps and reached around her, grabbing her breasts roughly.She felt his hand roughly against her vagina for a split second. Comerford said all of the touching happened outside the clothing, adding that the woman “was terrified and thought that she was going to be raped”.In her victim-impact statement, the woman said: “I have never felt fear like that in my life. Knowing no one was around to come and help and save you – that you were on your own . . . All I kept thinking was ‘I will not let you rape me’, as that was what I thought was going to happen to me. I just screamed out loud and constantly asked, ‘Why are you doing this? Please stop’.”She added that “having nightmares and flashbacks to that moment are horrible".“Why didn’t I fight back more when the assault took place? Yes, I tried to get him off me but I should have tried harder.”In relation to the stalking offence, the accused followed an airport worker off a bus at around 1.15am to the address where she lived with her fiance.Comerford said the accused said “hey, hey, hey”, adding that the woman was trembling with fear when her key code for her accommodation did not work. Counsel said the man then asked the woman if she wanted to have intercourse with him. The woman managed to open the door to let her into the building.Comerford said the woman could see the man banging against the closed door with his fist.In her victim-impact statement, the woman said: “I am thankful that I was able to get away and it did not cause too much harm to me, but the difficult part is recovering from that incident.”Det Garda Roddy Burke told the court that the accused – now aged 19 – has 36 previous convictions, including 34 committed before he turned 18.In a letter to the court, the accused said he wanted to apologise for his actions.Counsel for the accused, Patrick Whyms, said his client has previous convictions “but nothing of this nature”.Whyms said on the day of the sexual assault, his client had been up drinking alcohol and taking drugs through the night and into the morning. He had consumed a litre of Jack Daniels, nine to 10 cans of beer along with a quantity of cocaine.Judge Francis Comerford remanded the accused in custody to Tuesday morning for sentence.