Gardaí investigate ‘happy slapping’ attack
The man, who has just returned home from England with his family, was set upon at around 1am on Sunday morning after he left a nightclub in Nenagh.
A number of members of a group, which is believed to have included at least one girl, attacked the man. He received kicks and punches to the head and body while other members of the group used their mobile phone to video the attack.
A local doctor and another man came to aid of the youth and brought him to Nenagh hospital, where he was treated for facial injuries.
Supt Catherine Kehoe said gardaí were investigating and were treating the incident as “extremely serious”.
“I can confirm that the matter is being investigated and that statements have been taken. We are taking a very serious view of this incident and will be pursuing it to the finish,” Supt Kehoe said.
Supt Kehoe said she had not heard of the new ‘happy slapping’ phenomenon, but said she would be bringing the incident to the attention of her fellow gardaí.
Fears have been expressed that the attack is similar to a phenomenon known as ‘happy slapping’.
Happy slapping recently emerged in Britain. Groups of teenagers slap or otherwise assault unsuspecting members of the public and record the incident on their camera phones.
The short videos or photographs of the assaults are then circulated among friends and acquaintances of the perpetrators and sometimes also on the internet.
There appear to be two distinctive features of a ‘happy slap’ attack. Firstly, the point of the assault is not to injure the victim, or to steal anything from them, but simply to humiliate them. The second feature is that the attack is recorded, usually in the form of 3G mobile.
Dr Graham Barnfield, a media lecturer at the University of East London, has blamed MTV stunt shows such as Jackass and Dirty Sanchez for the rise of ‘happy slapping’.
It first came to the public’s attention in January 2005 when British police announced they were specifically targeting groups of youths who were slapping commuters in the face for no apparent reason and recording pictures of the assaults on their mobile phones and then texting them to their friends.
