A 29-year-old man has pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of a 24-year-old woman during an attempted robbery at an apartment complex in Dublin almost two years ago.
Aleksejus Belousovas, from Lithuania, cut Barbara Riouall's throat twice on the evening of the 10 May, 2005.
Today, the court heard 24-year old Barbara Riouall, a marketing student from Marseilles in France, is extremely lucky to be alive.
As she was opening her apartment door at Bertram Court, near Christchurch, on the evening of the attack, she noticed a man behind her.
He held a knife to her throat and she showed him that she had only €3 on her. After a struggle, Ms Riouall was stabbed in the shoulder once and the throat twice.
She pretended to be dead, and he threw her under a stairwell. Another resident found her a short time later.
Mr Belousovas was identified from CCTV footage.
When the trial opened he pleaded guilty to attempted robbery and assault, but denied he intended to kill Ms Riouall.
However, this afternoon, he changed his plea and pleaded guilty to attempted murder.
His barrister, Brendan Grehan, proposed the possibility of 'restorative justice' in this case.
This meeting between Ms Riouall and Mr Belousovas will take place at noon tomorrow, if Ms Riouall wants to go ahead with it.
