Teenager attacked Uzi-toting garda with rollerblade

A teenager who used a child’s roller-blade to attack a detective armed with an Uzi sub-machine gun has been released by a court without a criminal conviction.

The 17-year-old north Dublin boy had also kicked another armed detective who was holding a revolver.

He had reacted angrily when his house was mistakenly raided and its front door kicked in by the gardai in pursuit of an armed robber, the Dublin Children’s Court had heard.

At his sentence hearing today Judge Catherine Murphy said that due to the unusual circumstances of what happened, which explained the teenager’s over-reaction, she would apply the probation act, meaning that he had been found guilty but left without a conviction on his record.

“I do understand that the circumstances were unusual and that has to be taken into consideration, it was unfortunate that this occurred,” she told the teenager.

Releasing the boy, who is was actively seeking employment, she encouraged him to “get on with his life and not come before the courts again".

The boy had been found guilty earlier of assaulting gardaí and a breach of the peace outside his Finglas home in September 2003.

The boy said he and his sisters were extremely frightened by the armed gardaí.

“I was kicking things at the height of it. My little sister was terrified she thought someone was going to get shot,” he had told Judge Murphy.

Detectives with the assistance of the Garda helicopter had been chasing an armed and dangerous suspect who had held up a business and made off on a motorbike with E10,000.

They had been in contact with the Garda helicopter, which had tracked the suspect and his accomplice to a housing estate in Finglas.

Detective Garda Patrick Brennan had told the court that the Garda helicopter’s surveillance guided him and a colleague to a cul-de-sac where they saw the motorcycle parked outside the teenager’s house.

From the information received from the helicopter, he had reason to believe that the armed suspect had been in the teenager’s house, he said when he gave evidence in July.

He said he knocked at the door and explained that he was an armed garda investigating an offence and that he wanted to be let in but at that point he was told to “f**k off” by occupants.

The detective said he feared the suspect would escape and had no option but to kick in the house door. On searching the house there was no sign of the suspect.

The teenager verbally abused him and kicked him in the back as he was holding his revolver the court was told. Det-Gda Brennan said he then apologised to the people in the house and left to continue his investigation.

Another detective said that he had taken up position outside the house, armed with his Uzi submachine gun, when the teenager ran out and threw a child’s roller-blade at him.

The court also heard evidence that teenager had been witnessed spitting at another garda on the scene.

At this point the suspected-armed robber was arrested in a house two doors away by uniformed gardaí. The teenager was then arrested after a struggle for his behaviour towards the gardaí.

Judge Murphy was also told that the house door would not have to have been kicked in if the insiders, a young woman, the boy and his little sister, had initially allowed them entry to carry out their investigation.

She was told that they would have searched the house and then left after establishing that the suspect was not there.

The teenager said he was angry at their intrusion into his family home.

The court had also been told that the teenager’s his actions on the day were motivated out of his desire to protect his siblings and his family’s property.

His parents are separated but both provide him with support, the court had also heard.

Judge Murphy told the teenager: “The gardaí had a serious job trying to find and arrest a person who was responsible for an armed robbery, a very serious matter. That person was armed and they had a difficult job to do.”

“It was regrettable that they entered your house, I accept that, but if you had not resisted in a difficult manner then you would not be here today.”.