Teenage girl remanded on bail for part in gang mugging

A teenage girl has been remanded on continuing bail pending sentence for her part in a vicious gang mugging of a woman who was traumatised after she was beaten with a belt strap and had her wages robbed.

The girl (aged 17) had pleaded guilty previously at the Children's Court to robbery, at Malahide Marina, in north County Dublin, on November 24, 2006.

Today, Judge Bryan Smyth noted that a positive pre-sentence probation report on the girl, who is attending a training course, had been furnished.

The report was requesting an adjournment to allow the Probation Service further time to work with the girl to address her offending behaviour.

Judge Smyth adjourned sentencing the teenager, who is on bail and was accompanied to court by her mother, until December.

As a condition of bail he ordered her to comply with the directions of the Probation Service, take part in a "restorative justice" and anger management programme as well as address alcohol abuse counselling.

Earlier the court heard had heard she did not show any "victim empathy" and would not take responsibility for the mugging.

The court had also been told in an earlier hearing in July that the teenage girl had problems controlling her alcohol abuse and had been going through a bad phase.

The ordeal had a huge impact on the victim, who is in her 20s, and still "affected her in her daily life," the court had also been told.

Garda Suzanne Lavin had said that the teenager, who had no previous convictions, had been with a group of girls outside the victim's workplace. The woman left work and was confronted by the girl gang who attacked her.

During the mugging she was repeatedly struck by them and one of the defendant's accomplices used a belt to hit the victim who was left with cuts and bruises.

The woman was saved when people who witnessed the robbery and intervened. However, her mobile phone, MP3 player and her week's wages stolen.

Further Public Order Act charges had been brought against the girl for a drink-fuelled incident last June where she tried to attack gardaí and damaged a door in a Garda station.

The girl's solicitor had said that the defendant "does not recall the incident, a lot of alcohol was consumed."