Girl spared sentence in connection with gang attack

A young woman, who helped pin a Chinese student against railings as he was set on by a gang of youths and head-butted, has been spared a custodial sentence.

The 18-year-old, a mother of one and a former heroin user, had pleaded guilty at the Children’s Court to assault causing harm to the 22-year-old Chinese national, at Mountjoy Square North, in Dublin, on August 18, 2007. She was a juvenile at the time of the offence.

Last May, she had been placed under a supervisory probation bond for 12 months and had been ordered to attend addiction counselling, be tested for drug use and to keep the peace.

However, the case was re-entered last month after the court heard that the teenager had broken the terms of her bond by not turning up for appointments with her probation officer.

Her probation officer said that the defendant missed five appointments and did not respond to letters warning her she risked having her case brought back to court.

The probation officer had also said she learned that the teen had been arrested for drug related charges but added that charges have not been brought yet.

The case was adjourned until today for an updated reports from the Probation Service.

Judge Heather Perrin noted that the teenager had started engaging with the Probation Service again and has become more co-operative.

She warned the young woman that she needed to continue to address her drug problem and that she had a responsibiltiy to her baby. “If you do not look after her who will?” she asked the defendant who replied “I don't know.”

Judge Perrin made no further order allowing the girl to remain on probation.

Garda Amy Collins had told the court earlier she had been on plain clothes duty when she witnessed three males and the defendant approach the young Chinese man, who had been standing at a bus stop holding his mobile phone.

“They surrounded him, one male head butted him in the face, the others restrained him against railings,” she said.

She told the court that the teenager helped restrain the man by holding his hand as he was being attacked.

The victim suffered a small cut which left a scar over his left eye.

Garda Collins agreed that the defendant was co-operative after her arrest and admitted that on the day she had fallen in with the other three youths after she had consumed alcohol.

In mitigation, the court had been told that the teen, who had three prior convictions, was remorseful, had left school in third year and started taking drugs, eventually moving onto heroin abuse.

The defendant “has little recollection of the incident or of what happened,” her lawyer had said at an earlier stage.