Teen found guilty of attacking woman remanded on bail

A 16-year-old has been remanded on bail pending sentence after he was found guilty of attacking a woman from his neighbourhood with an inflatable baseball bat.

The boy had denied assaulting the 33-year-old woman, who has been left intimidated and nervous as a result of the attack, in Drimnagh, in Dublin, on July 17 last year.

The woman told Judge Ann Ryan at the Dublin Children’s Court that she and her sister had been walking to their house when a group of youths surrounded them.

The teenager hit her on her head with a plastic baseball bat, which she later admitted, when questioned by defence solicitor Gareth Noble, was an inflatable one.

Though she did not receive any physical injuries the incident left her “shocked, distressed, balling crying”.

She went to the boy’s home to speak to his mother where she admitted that “words were exchanged” during which she referred to the boy as a scumbag. The conversation ended when the boy’s mother told her to take up the matter with the gardai..

The teenager had been prosecuted after he was deemed ineligible for caution through the Garda Juvenile Liaison Office, a crime diversion programme.

In evidence the boy admitted being at the scene but denied hitting the woman. He said he and his mates all had inflatable baseball bats but he had burst his before his group met the woman.

He also disputed her evidence that she had been struck and claimed it was her sister who had been hit with the toy bat by one of his friends.

He said that he would “never hit a woman” but added “apart from fights with my sister”.

Judge Ryan said that she accepted the woman’s account and found the boy guilty.

Prosecuting Garda Robert Ryan told the court that the woman had been “intimidated by the situation and is continually nervous by this assault”.

The boy had no prior convictions, however, Mr Noble advised the court that his client was facing sentencing next months for other crimes he has admitted.

He said a probation report had already been sought and asked for the assault case to be adjourned and included in the same sentence hearing.

He said his client, who was accompanied to court by his mother, was currently being supervised by the Probation Service and it was also hoped that there would be “a professional assessment report in relation to other issues”.

Judge Ryan agreed to adjourn sentencing the boy for the assault and remanded him on continuing bail with a warning that in the mean time he had to attend his appointments with his probation officer and not come to Garda attention.