A young woman raped at a gaming convention says she sees her “boogeyman” everywhere – even though the sick rapist is in prison.
Dominique Meehan was raped by Keith Hearne at a gaming convention in 2015 and waived her right to anonymity so that he could be publicly named.
The monster threatened to kill her during the sickening attack as she desperately tried to hit him with her phone.
She was saved when her friend, a black belt in karate, entered the room and held down Hearne.
Ms Meehan, 25, from Letterkenny, told RTE Radio 1 that she fools herself into believing she sees him despite the fact that she knows he is in prison.
“Even though Keith Hearne is in jail now and I know this, I thought I saw him in Letterkenny Shopping Centre and I nearly collapsed.
“I didn’t even have the drive to run away I just grabbed my friend’s arm and said ‘that’s him, that’s him’ and just as the man was getting closer I realised it wasn’t. But even two days after I was feeling the shock, the shakiness, I was still panicking.
“Every time I woke up I could see him in the corner of my room walking towards me as he did in the screening room.
“People talk about the boogie man, Keith Hearne is my boogie man.”
She said the idea of violent Hearne coming out of prison and pretending he was “away on holidays” played a part in her deciding to go public.
“I can’t imagine him going to jail and maybe coming back into my community with no one knowing. I want everybody to know.
“I am making sure Keith Hearne’s name will never leave, especially in Tallaght where he lives.”
