Woman describes e-scooter terror at church – and at garda station

Thomas Lyons

It’s a scene from the pages of a dystopian novel rather than the streets of Mullingar, but the experience of an elderly lady terrorised by a group of young men on e-scooters is not a work of fiction. Motivated by the need to highlight an abhorrent incident, the woman called to the Westmeath Examiner office and said: “I think public attention needs to be drawn on this.”

The occurrence was one she felt compelled to speak on, but did not want her name given out for fear of being targeted. The impact of the event was apparent in the trembling of the voice, in the measured way this woman recalled the harrowing events: “I had parked in the grounds of All Saints,” she said.

She had participated in the Mullingar Choral Society rehearsals which concluded at around 9.30pm on Tuesday at All Saints Church. She got into her car and was about to make her way home. “Church Avenue is fairly short, and just when I pulled out, I put on my lights, and there they were. I’d say there were at least 10 of them. All zooming round.

“I came down, took a left to go up the street, to the Dominick Street roundabout. They followed me, zooming in and out and around me. Before me, behind me, there was one guy leading the posse. He was making faces and some kind of hand signals.”

The lady does not consider herself vulnerable. The behaviour of the group was, however, filling her with dread: “When I got up to the roundabout at Galvins, on the way up to Mary Street, I thought, ‘God, if I go down to Bishopsgate Street and I turn for home, will they follow me?’.

“I thought if I parked the car at the garda barracks it might scare them off, so I did that.”

Having stopped outside the station, she spoke to a civilian who was outside and told him what had transpired. His response was emphatic: “He said to me, ‘Mrs, it’s in there, you want to go and say it to the guards’. While that was going on, the lads on the e-scooters were still circling between the side gate going into the cathedral and the gate going into St Mary’s PS. Zooming around, shouting back, ‘oh, there’s this old one going into the guards’”. I couldn’t really understand or make out a lot of what they were saying.”

With her abusers outside the station, she told the gardaí what had happened: “I was pretty shaken. And I still am when I think of it. I went in and told the guard on duty the story. He was horrified and said to me, ‘we have a car on the town tonight, we’ll be out, we’ll catch up with these boys’. I thanked him and I came out.

“They were still on the street, circling around on their scooters. As I was getting into my car, two guards came out. The young men were shouting back smart stuff and smart talk and challenging the guards as far as I could make out.”

The entire experience was one that the mature woman found difficult to process: “When I got home, I broke down because I was terrified. I wondered if they know my car or where I live. I’m living on my own.

“I think public attention needs to be drawn on this, because it’s not funny.”

Garda statement

In a statement on the matter, Garda Press Office confirmed that they were approached about the incident: “Gardaí were alerted to an incident involving e-scooters on Church Avenue, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath on Tuesday, April 28, 2026 in the late evening.

“Gardaí responded with a combination of mobile and active foot patrols of the area. Enquiries are ongoing.

It continued: “Gardaí are committed to keeping people safe and have recently conducted a number of days of action targeted at e-scooters. Gardaí have also recently visited schools to engage with young people on the use of e-scooters.

“In relation to road traffic offences, Gardaí issue FCPNS and seize e-scooters,” the statement concluded.