No further jail time for drug-fuelled street attack

A YOUTH who is already behind bars for violent offences has received a suspended prison sentence, despite beating and robbing a man and leaving him bleeding and concussed in Dublin’s Temple Bar.

The 17-year-old, who is already serving a three-year sentence for other violent street offences, will be back on the streets in two years’ time after a judge decided to impose a ten-month term – but suspended it in full.

During sentencing, the teen became irate, demanding the judge finalise the case, saying: ‘Give us the sentence, I don’t give a f***, three years, ten months. I’m almost 18 now. I don’t give a f***.’

The victim was left with cuts and bruises to his arms, legs and face and bleeding. He has told gardaí he’s now afraid to go to that part of the city.

It happened at 12.10am on September 24, 2016 at Fownes Street after the man was chased from the Central Bank Plaza. His attacker, who was under the influence of a ‘large concoction of substances’ at the time of the incident, pleaded guilty at the Dublin Children’s Court to robbery.

In evidence, Garda O’Mahoney told the court that he had been attached to a Public Order Unit which received a call to go to the Central Bank Plaza. The injured party informed him that ‘he had been beaten up and robbed by a number of youths’.

Garda Ciaran O’Mahoney said the man had cuts and bruises to his arms, legs and his face, and was bleeding. His phone and wallet containing his Leap card and €10 had been taken. Witnesses described how a group of youths approached the man and demanded his phone and wallet and when he refused, they chased him to Fownes Street.

The defendant was one of a group who had chased the man and beat him on to the ground and took his wallet and phone, the garda said.

He was identified by witnesses at the scene, and on arrest, was taken to Pearse Street Garda Station.

The victim recovered from his physical injuries which were not long-lasting, but the garda said the man still had mental injuries. ‘Last time I spoke to him, he was still worried about going into town,’ Gda O’Mahoney said.

At an earlier stage, the garda accepted that the teen had ‘turned his life around’ since he was taken in and began living with his girlfriend’s family. The court heard the teen was abstaining from drugs.

Pleading for leniency, his lawyer said the boy’s home life at the time of the incident was considerably different and there had been a lack of support. He had been taken in by his girlfriend’s family, and her mother begged the judge not to impose another custodial sentence. Judge John O’Connor had said that while drug use was an explanation for what happened, it was not a mitigating factor but he accepted the teen had turned his life around. Comment – Page 14

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