Model Thalia Heffernan told RTE's Claire Byrne of how she witnessed a man commit a lewd act after stopping at a petrol station in the days leading up to Christmas.
Thalia said she was travelling home from work when she pulled into a petrol station off the M1 to pick up some things.
However, when she returned to her car, she noticed another vehicle had parked to her left and had turned their interior light on.
She said: "I was working, driving home. I think it was probably 6.30, seven o'clock. Pulled into a petrol station off of the M1, just went to pick up some things, came back to the car.
"I vividly remember in front of me a man was walking with his two daughters, and they were skipping, and I was thinking how lovely they're probably looking forward to Santa coming. It was, I think, maybe five days in the run-up to Christmas and I got into my car.
"I put the things that I bought over onto the passenger seat, and from the corner of my eye, I saw the interior light of the car next door to me turn on.
"And that because it was so dark, I just looked immediately, and there was a man masturbating in his car."
She added: "With the shock, I just reversed, drove away and then I instantly thought of those two young girls that I'd seen walking in front of me with their dad, and they had gotten into the car to the right of me, and his car was to the left.
"Now, thankfully, my car was bigger. I don't think that they would have seen anything, but as I reversed out, his light went off straight away, and I went he's done this before. This man has done this. He was so confident in how he had done it."
The model said she believed the man was waiting for an opportunity to commit the act.
"He wasn't there originally when I pulled in. He'd obviously seen me come, or seen a woman, I think it could have been anyone, leave on their own and had probably driven around to be in prime position."
The 26-year-old said she called gardai as she drove away to report the incident but felt their response was "very nonchalant".
She said: "I called the police as I was driving away, and the response felt very nonchalant. I felt I kind of had to reiterate my phone number and say, 'can you please let me know something will be done. I've given you the time, where I was and there was no call made. I never got a call back from the police."
Thalia said she regretted not taking the matter further after hearing reports of a man hacking onto an online vigil held for Ashling Murphy and committing the same act.
She said: "I called the petrol station. I asked for CCTV, but by the time anything came about, it was Christmas day. I kind of let it go, and I regret it now after what happened at the online vigil for Ashling Murphy last night where a man hacked on."
Thalia described the act as a "complete violation" and said something needs to be done to show people that this behaviour is unacceptable.
She said: "It's a complete violation, and I think what we need to realise is there are stages of escalation when it comes to violence towards women, and they may start out seemingly innocent. Like some people might deem that innocent in that I wasn't touched, there wasn't any kind of physical action taken. It was a quick visual transaction between two people. Not that I was in any way consenting to it.
"But when you see then someone hack onto a vigil for this gorgeous girl... I think there was 90 people on this zoom, and he did the same thing. Is that an escalation? And what will be done to stop this? And will this person, after my calling the police and nothing being done, will he go on to then actually say, oh well, if I got away with it then and I've gotten away with it before, I can go on and do what I want from here on in."
