Teenager remanded on bail after being found guilty of assaulting female garda

A teenage boy has been remanded on bail pending sentence after he was found guilty of assaulting a female garda after he began making “rude gestures”.

The 16-year-old boy had denied assaulting Garda Melissa Kelly, at Kill Abbey, in Deansgrange, Dublin, in the early hours of March 15 last.

In evidence, Garda Kelly told Judge Bryan Smyth that the patrol car she was travelling in passed the teenager and another boy. “I saw him making rude gestures with his fingers,” she said adding that the patrol car turned around at which the teens fled.

She said the boy ran into a garden and hid behind a car. She cautioned him to come out at which point she said she went to arrest him. “He struck out at me with his fist and collided with my chin,” she alleged.

She denied when questioned by defence solicitor Mr Garreth Noble that she had not been hit but that the boy had fled from her.

The teenager denied hitting the garda but admitted that he ran when the patrol van came after him and another youth and fled again when the garda was speaking to him.

The second youth gave evidence claiming that he had also been hiding in the garden where the defendant had been and also said he did not see his friend hit the garda.

Judge Smyth found the boy guilty and was told the teen did not have any previous convictions and had never been before the courts before.

The court heard that the boy, who was accompanied to court by his father, was taking part in a training course and references were handed in to the judge to inspect.

Judge Smyth remanded the boy on bail pending sentence in January and for a probation report to be obtained.