Teenager detained for five months for trying to push garda from balcony
A youth convicted of attacking a garda whom he tried to push him off a third-floor flat complex balcony has been given a five-months detention sentence.
The teenage boy, aged 17, had admitted obstructing gardaí but denied assault causing harm outside his home, in south inner city Dublin, on a date in September last year.
Judge Bryan Smyth heard at the Children’s Court that gardai had a warrant to search the boy’s home over the theft of a bicycle, four days previously.
Five gardaí were let in to his home and the teenager was told to get dressed as the search was carried out. The boy’s father became aggressive and said he would get a “blade” as the situation became tense.
Garda Martin Doolin had said the teenager walked out of the flat when told he was going to be arrested. He was followed by two gardaí but ignored them when they called out to him to stop.
He then saw the teenager run at his colleague Garda Niall O’Reilly punch him with full force and push him.
Garda O’Reilly had said the teenager “turned and shouted fuck-off and then ran towards me.”
“As he was running to me I saw that his fists were clenched and he was grinding his teeth.”
He told Judge Smyth the teen punched him in the face; he was off balance as he was shoved against a balcony wall which was about four to five feet high. “He pushed me against the wall, tried to get me over the balcony,” he had said.
He said he sustained a cut gum and bruise and said it was “a very frightening experience.”
The teen already had seven previous convictions for criminal damage, theft, burglary and handling stolen property.
Defence counsel Ms O’Sullivan had said her client was out of school but hoped to begin a training course and had problems controlling his anger. She said the teenager, who was accompanied by his father, was seeking a further opportunity to co-operate with the Probation Service.
Judge Smyth considered the incident “a serious matter” adding that detention had to be a “last resort”.
In sentencing him, he noted that a probation report, which referred to a previous assault incident, was not “wholly positive” and added, “I know he has been in and out of here [court] a few times since”.
