'Attackers took 'penalty kicks' on my face', says victim

A 17-year-old boy has been found guilty at the Dublin Children’s Court of taking part in an assault on a man who claimed his head was used like a football as his attackers took “penalty kicks".

The boy had pleaded not guilty to assault causing harm to the man, in Dublin’s south inner city, in the early hours of December 16 last year.

The victim told Judge Ann Ryan that he had taken a lift from a woman. Her car stopped outside the defendant’s home at which the boy’s older brother called him a “scumbag".

The woman drove off but turned and came back to the same road where the victim got out of the car.

He said the defendant’s brother first threw punches at him. He put his hands up to protect himself when the boy came “running straight at me. With that they treated me like a football, I got punched and kicked.”

He alleged he was held down by the boy whose brother then threw a shopping trolley on him.

“I got an almighty kick. It was like they were taking penalty kicks on my face,” he also said adding that he thought he had been kicked over 100 times.

He managed to get back into the woman’s car at which she drove off but the attackers chased and a window of the car was smashed.

He then got a taxi home where his partner called the gardaí.

The boy said in evidence that the man had been outside his family home and spoke to his brother about getting drugs. His brother told him to go away and hit him a couple of punches which “busted his nose".

He also admitted that he hit the victim twice but denied that the man had been treated like a football. He also alleged that the man had previously chased him and his partner bore a grudge against him.

Garda Cillian Blake of Kevin Street station told the court that shortly after the incident he saw that the victim had a bloody face and one side of it was swollen.

The victim had also said he then went to St James’ Hospital but after being seen in triage he left because he was not thinking straight. A few weeks later he went to his doctor and was subsequently X-rayed. He also added that his jaw was broken from the assault.

Judge Ryan found the teen guilty but noted that the medical reports on the victim resulted from an X-ray taken several weeks after the incident.

However she held that there was evidence from what the garda had seen that the boy had caused harm to the man.

The boy was not accompanied to court by his mother as she was ill. Judge Ryan remanded the teen, who has four previous convictions two for motor thefts and two for Public Order offences, on bail pending sentence. A pre-probation report on him was also sought.