Study: Children see gang figures as role models

A SENIOR Garda officer said yesterday that children in deprived areas of Limerick see local gang figures as people with status and glamour who fill a void in their lives.

Supt Frank O’Brien was speaking following a study on child crime in Limerick carried out by UCC sociologist Dr Niamh Hourigan.

The parish priest of Southill, who highlighted the reign of terror being waged by children as young as nine on elderly people in the Irish Examiner on March 31, said in recent weeks he had to get an elderly parishioner rehoused due to attacks on her home by out-of-control children.