ALANNA INJURY FIGHT CAUGHT ON CCTV
Teenage girl lost sight in one eye after assault on street
CCTV footage captures the moment “violence erupts” resulting in the injuries suffered by teen Alanna Quinn Idris, a court has heard.
The then 17-year-old was left with a shattered tooth, broken cheekbones and a ruptured eyeball following an assault at the Civic Centre, Ballyfermot, Dublin, on the night of December 30 last year.
Alanna, now 18, underwent several operations to fix her eye socket and lost her sight in the injured eye.
In January, Darragh Lyons and co-accused Jack Cummins appeared at Dublin District Court and were granted bail subject to strict conditions.
Lyons, 18, of Weir View, Glenaulin, Chapelizod, Dublin 20, was accused of assault causing harm to Alanna Quinn Idris.
Cummins, 18, Rossmore Road, Ballyfermot, Dublin, was charged with assault causing harm to a teenage boy.
Last month, gardai consented to remove curfews from their list of bail conditions. They appeared again at Dublin District Court yesterday.
Judge Paula Murphy heard that the Director of Public Prosecutions’ directions were not available yet and granted an adjournment until June 24.
Solicitor Lorraine Stephens, for Cummins, applied for an order to disclose video evidence.
She told Judge Murphy there was CCTV footage from the Ballyfermot Road where the injuries occurred to the young lady and the young man.
The solicitor added that she had seen it twice, but it remains in gardai custody.
She told the court that it was “not high quality” and wanted it examined by an expert.
She said: “It appears to show a number of males posturing; some of them have implements.
“A girl comes into the shot, leaves the shot, comes back into the shot and throws a full-force punch at one of the young males and the violence erupts.”
Ms Stephens described the “very quick piece of footage” as “vital”. She added the case would be dealt with on indictment in the circuit court.
She explained that she would receive disclosure of the footage about two weeks before her client was arraigned, which was not enough time.
She had contacted a CCTV expert in Ireland but “it all takes time”, and she might have to send the footage to a UK expert.
Judge Murphy did not grant the order but said the application could be made again when the case is back before the district court next month. Earlier, the
defendants had to give gardai their phone numbers
They must remain contactable, notify of any address change and have no contact with the injured parties or witnesses.
At their first hearing on January 7, Garda Ciaran Murray told the court that Lyons made no reply when charged.
The defence had successfully resisted a bid to order him to sign on daily at his local garda station.
He said Lyons had “on a number of occasions tried to hand himself in, in relation to this matter”, however, gardai did not want to do it that way and came to his home.
Ms Stephens said Cummins worked for a tyre company.
She had said: “He specifically asked me to indicate that it is accepted he did not cause injuries to the young woman involved.”
Neither man has indicated how they will plead.
that freezing February night were not so fortunate: six killed and 17 injured.
Muhamed, now 55, says: “My shoes got stuck in the mud so I was barefooted on the mountain.
“It was below zero, steep, rocky and muddy. I was sliding back and forth. We were constantly fired on, you could be killed at any single moment.
“But we had no other choice to get to the Eurovision Song Contest.”
He had hope too, not only of bolstering his nation but of being reunited with his girlfriend Sanda, who had escaped Sarajevo months earlier.
In Croatia, he was finally able to contact her. He says: “She was in shock. She said, ‘I knew you were crazy but this crazy I didn’t know’.”
Sanda flew to Ireland to be with him for the contest. He says: “The applause I will not forget as long as I live. I get
goosebumps every time I hear that. This weekend will be very important for the Ukrainian people. Morale will be high when they see the entirety of Europe is with them.”
Muhamed is speaking to the Mirror from Sarajevo, where he, Sanda and their daughter Sarah now live after spending years in the US after the war.
In April 1992, Muhamed was 25, a footballer and model, when Sarajevo was taken under siege and he had to flee his home to the other side of the city.
A former republic of Yugoslavia, when Bosnia Herzegovina’s independence was declared, a power struggle erupted. Bosnian Muslims became
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victims of ethnic cleansing as Bosnian Serb forces laid siege to Sarajevo.
Muhamed recalls: “There was no food, no water, no electricity, no windows. I lost about 50lbs in the first year. We were surviving on humanitarian aid.”
He had recorded one song, and was called up to contribute to the resistance war effort.
He says: “Every pop and folk singer had to report for duty.
“We met secretly, we walked to the national TV centre, five miles, trying to hide.”
When he was invited to enter his song Sva bol svijeta – All the Pain in the World – in the national
Eurosong competition he never imagined winning. But the words chimed.
He says: “I was replicating how people felt – the whole world’s pain is in Bosnia tonight… I’m not afraid to stumble and fall, I’ll never stop singing, they will never take my soul.”
In Ireland, he felt he had landed on another planet. He says: “From having nothing to having everything. People didn’t understand what it was like. My mum learned about me through the media, I didn’t know if she was alive or dead in the moment I was performing.”
That night, by hook or by crook, Sarajevo tuned in to watch. The song finished 16th but Fazla was a hero.
After the contest, the band recorded an album and played humanitarian concerts, but then returned home to Bosnia and Herzegovina – and war.
Muhamed travelled the country, performing for troops. He says: “My conscience would haunt me for the rest of my life if I hadn’t gone back.
“Every day there were grenades but it was the least I could do.”
It was only after the signing of the 1995 Dayton Agreement, a ceasefire with the backing of NATO, that he and Sanda moved to the US, where he had a football academy and taught sociology, before returning two years ago.
Today, people still remember where they were that 1993 Eurovision night and the song is still sung in schools.
Muhamed says: “Even now when I walk the street they shout, ‘Fazla!’”
I didn’t know if my mother was alive or dead when I performed MUHAMED FAZLAGIC ON TORMENT BEHIND SHOW