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A 17-year-old man joined an attack on another teenager by smashing a vodka bottle over his head as he lay helpless on the ground and then repeatedly stabbing him with the neck of the bottle.
Today he was jailed for 18 months. Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin imposed a sentence of two years and six months and suspended one year in the Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
The frenzied attack was videotaped and posted on social media. However, although the judge commented on this, he said that it was not something in itself for which the defendant could be convicted.
Both the defendant and the victim were 17 years old at the time of the June attack and cannot be identified in the coverage of the case.
Garda Detective Declan Healy described the crime that occurred after 10 pm on June 6 at a housing estate in Carrigaline as “a brutal and fierce assault on an injured party that actually left him for dead.”
Det. Garda Healy said: “A young man asked him for € 2 for a bus. When he refused, they threw him to the ground with their fists and kicked him. The defendant then spoke with the first youth involved in the assault. He approached the injured man lying on the ground and smashed a 70 cl vodka bottle on the injured man’s head.
“Another young man recorded it on Snapchat and it went viral throughout the city and county, as well as the United States, causing great distress to the injured party and their family.
“The wounded man had an iPhone 5 worth € 500 that fell out of his pocket and the defendant picked it up and left the place with two other young people.” The defendant was caught on the phone and in his third interview with Gardaí he came out clean and confessed to having attacked the injured person and taking the phone.
“The injured party would be a quiet young man who never had a problem with the guards.
Defense attorney Emmet Boyle said that the defendant wrote a letter of apology to the aggrieved party and the defendant’s father wrote another and that these letters were delivered to the gardaí by the aggrieved party.
Boyle said of the defendant: “He was the object of hatred in the community, focusing on the event and his ethnicity.” The lawyer said that the defendant had moved from Cork.
In a statement on the victim’s impact, the victim’s family said: “We believed our son was safe in his local community.
“We always encourage him to form strong friendships through school and sports. The spirit that you needed to show respect to gain respect was instilled in (victim’s name) from an early age. So that our son was the victim of this frenzied and unnecessary attack was a devastating blow to our family.
“The scenes from that night will stay with us forever. We could only describe it as participating in an episode of CSI. The severity of the incident was conveyed to us by the flashing lights of Garda’s cars, blaring sirens, crowds of spectators, and the presence of an ambulance.
“This was the worst nightmare of all parents. We thought our son was dead. We have no words to describe this emotion here today.
“The social media side of this attack added another layer of pain and pain to our lives.
“We cannot accept how this can be recorded, published and shared on a global platform. We have never looked at it. Nor will we ever.
“This attack has caused immense pain and anguish. We fear for the well-being and safety of our children when they are away. If our phone calls go unanswered, it creates deep anxiety in us.
Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin acknowledged that pleading guilty to the charges of battery causing damage and theft of the iPhone obviated the additional anguish that would have caused the injured party to have to testify at trial.
The judge also pointed to the fact that the defendant was so young and had no prior convictions, had shown remorse and had tried to take steps to put his life on a better basis. However, the judge said there had to be a prison sentence.
“It is very difficult to understand the nature and severity of the violence used. He had a victim on the ground. He was not previously involved in the assault. He came across a defenseless man, hit him with a bottle, and then stabbed him in the face with the broken bottle. It is difficult to understand in anyone, even more so in youth.
“It was an assault on a defenseless victim that caused great discomfort.
And then some idiot filmed it and made it viral. It is a sad sign of our modern existence that we should have fallen so low, ”said Judge Ó Donnabháin.
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