Gardaí interview schoolboys over alleged assault on girl

GARDAÍ in Mountbellew, Co Galway, yesterday interviewed up to 15 witnesses to a schoolyard incident las week in which a 16-year-old girl was alleged to have been attacked.

The mother of the victim has welcomed a decision to indefinitely suspend the boys involved in the alleged assault. The girl at the centre of the incident at St Jarlath’s Vocational School in the town, has said she was grabbed from behind by a number of boys while in the yard on lunch break.

It is alleged she had her hands and ankles tied up and her mouth stuffed with a scarf while the boys also tried to pull down her pants, she said, during an ordeal that lasted up to 15 minutes. It is also alleged up to five boys were involved in the incident, with one boy recording it on his mobile phone. The girl’s mother said she hoped the footage would not find its way onto the internet.