Schoolboys injured in horror shovel attack
Youngsters suffer eye & facial injuries after gang launches terrifying assault
TWO boys suffered eye and facial injuries after they were attacked by a gang of thugs.
The mob – who were armed with shovels and iron poles – followed the lads home and even tried to attack the father of one of the boys.
Alan said his son Martin, 13, and his friend were set upon by a gang in the Cromlech Fields area of Ballybrack, South Dublin, on Friday night.
He told the Irish Mirror: “Martin and his friend wanted to get a bag of chips.
“About five minutes later the door flew open in the house and it was his friend screaming for help with blood dripping
LETTERKENNY DISTRICT COURT YESTERDAY
down his face. I went out to the door and there was gangs of young lads coming at me with poles, shovels and ll with their hoods up.
“I closed the door and they started hitting against it with the weapons.
“I opened the door again and they ran off but they were after smashing the back window of the car in the garden.
“The young lad who came into the house was covered in blood, he was after being hit with a shovel.
“We couldn’t find our young lad, luckily enough he was in my neighbour’s house up the road.
“He had already been attacked but they had him trapped in a garden, a woman and her husband ran out and saved him.”
Alan said his son was badly shaken and still has blurry vision after the assault.
He added: “He got hit in the eye, I don’t know what he got hit with but he got bad damage to his right eye.
“We were in the hospital with him all Friday and Saturday and were in again on Monday. The muscle in his eye that controls the movement is damaged and his vision is blurry.
“Luckily he didn’t lose an eye although the doctors said we aren’t out of the woods in terms of losing his sight.”
Alan said his son had been playing football in Bray all day and hadn’t been in any bother.
He added: “They weren’t out, they weren’t causing trouble, they just came across these lads.
“Between six and 10 young armed with all sorts of weapons.
“These lads were just walking around on a mission for trouble and came across my son and his friend.” A DRUNKEN thug viciously attacked a 14-year-old boy and asked him if he wanted to die, a court heard yesterday.
Lee Byrne, 28, targeted the child who was waiting for his mother to collect him outside a takeaway in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, in July.
The terrified boy fled and hid inside the premises.
His mother arrived and Byrne was pointed out to her but he fled.
The coward was arrested, found to be drunk and discovered carrying a cannabis grinder.
He verbally abused officers and called them “public service w ***** s”.
Byrne, of no fixed abode but originally from Tallaght in South Dublin, admitted assault but said he had no recollection of the attack.
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lads
It was a random attack, they were not known to each other GARDA
A Garda told Letterkenny District Court:
“It was a completely random attack and they were not known to each other.”
A victim impact statement written by the boy telling how his life had changed since the incident was handed into court, but not read out.
Defence solicitor Rory O’brien said his client had read the letter and was deeply moved by how it had affected the victim.
Byrne added he wanted to apologise to him but said he had no recollection of the incident.
Mr O’brien told how the defendant’s parents had split when he was young and he had become addicted to various substances.
Days before the attack, Byrne had become homeless and was sleeping rough.
A letter of apology written by him to his victim was handed into court.
Judge Paul Kelly said he wanted to hear what the victim had to say about the letter of apology written by Byrne to him.
He adjourned the case until December 17.