Schoolboy fractured teen’s skull over drug deal

A privately educated schoolboy who fractured another teen’s skull over €50 worth of cannabis has been placed in custody until Monday while a judge considers a sentence.

The 17-year-old boy from Foxrock, Dublin, who cannot be named, pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to his victim at Blackrock, Co Dublin, on January 25 last year.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard yesterday that the boy, then 16, armed himself with a hammer and struck his victim, a secondary school student, on the forehead, causing a fractured skull and internal bleeding. They had never met before.

Prosecuting counsel Paul Carroll, BL, said the incident occurred after two groups of teenage boys arranged to meet at Blackrock in relation to a row over a €50 drug deal.

The court heard the guilty party’s friend had reneged on a deal to supply cannabis to the victim’s friends. After a series of calls and texts between both groups of boys, it was arranged they would meet up in Blackrock.

The boy told gardaí he initially brought the hammer to the meeting “for protection” and because it was “better to be safe than sorry”, the court heard.

However, Mr Carroll said the boy told gardaí he “got angrier during the day” after he took a phone call from a member of the other gang.

After the groups met in a laneway around 6pm, the boy hit his victim on the forehead once and attempted to strike him another couple of times. When asked by gardaí why he did it, he said: “I was stupid enough to think it was a good idea to hit him.”

The victim was rushed to hospital with a fractured skull and bleeding to the brain. The accused was arrested at his home by gardaí after several boys identified him from the scene.

The victim read out a victim impact statement in court in which he said his injury had given him “a great deal of stress and pain”.

“Over the last year, I’ve had terrible trouble leaving my house without a friend or family member,” he said. The victim said he had had to move from honours level Leaving Cert to do the Leaving Cert Applied course, which meant he would miss out on going to university.

Defence barrister Sandra Frayne, BL, said her client was extremely sorry and she asked the judge not to impose a custodial sentence.

She said the boy grew up in a supportive family but became addicted to drugs from the age of 13. She said he had tried to take his own life on two prior occasions.

The boy’s father said his son became involved in a “culture of drinking and drugs” at his private secondary school.

Since the attack, he has enrolled in a centre for teenage addicts and had “turned his life around”, his father said.