Young Dublin woman gets suspended sentence for broken bottle assault

A young Dublin woman who assaulted a man with a broken bottle at Shankill Dart station after a verbal altercation between two groups of youths has been given a two year suspended sentence.

Allwyn O’Connell (aged 20), with an address at Rathsallagh Park, Shankill, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm to the then 17-year-old male on March 2, 2007.

Judge Tony Hunt said there had been “tooing and froing” between the two groups but that O’Connell’s reaction was “out of all proportion to what was going on".

He said: “This is the kind of behaviour that makes people reluctant to go out for the night".

Judge Hunt imposed a two-year sentence which he suspended for two years on strict conditions.

Garda Thomas Devereux told Mr Shane Costelloe BL, prosecuting, that the victim was waiting on the platform in Shankill DART station for the next train when he and his friends noted a group of young girls who were shouting abuse at them.

He crossed the tracks to get away from the group but Gda Devereux said the abuse continued across from the platforms and described it as coming from both the victim and O’Connell.

O’Connell, described by the victim as the leader of the group of girls, then came across to his platform with her friends and started to further verbally abuse him before they all started hitting him.

He pushed them off and tried to run away, when he saw O’Connell pick up a bottle and smash it against a wall before she continued to shout at him.

O’Connell assaulted the victim and he felt blood on his left ear and thumb. He ran to get away and was stopped by a member of the public who gave him first aid and the gardaí were alerted.

He received six stitches to his left ear and five stitches to his thumb where he was struck with the bottle.

O’Connell was arrested after the victim gave a description of her and gardaí viewed CCTV.

Gda Devereux agreed with Mr Justin McQuade BL, defending, that O’Connell had placed herself at the scene and that her mother was a respectable individual who had cooperated with the gardaí.

Ms Karen Quigley, O’Connell’s mother, told Mr McQuade that her daughter suffered from low self esteem due to learning difficulties and developed a “serious” drug problem with “heroin, cocaine and ecstasy” after leaving school aged 14 years old.

She said her daughter was addressing her drug addiction and was in a stable relationship with a man with whom she had recently moved to Clondalkin.

Mr McQuade said O’Connell was a “fragile, vulnerable lady with low self esteem who would appear to be easily led.” He said there had been a long period of joblessness but that was changing and she was willing to engage with The Probation Service.