Girl admits attacking gardaí following binge

A teenage girl, who has been in care since she was aged one, has pleaded guilty to attacking two gardaí following a drinking binge.

The Dublin teen (aged 16) pleaded guiltytoday at the Children's Court to two counts of assaulting gardai on a date last April

Garda Maire Cahalan of Ballymun station told Judge Bryan Smyth that she had been dealing with a group of youths including the accused who was drunk. “She became aggressive and struck out at me, punched me in the face, kicked and punched me,” she said.

Garda Cahalan said the girl called her “a f***ing whore and prostitute” and was then arrested.

However, she continued to act aggressively and another garda was kicked in her groin and to her legs.

Defence solicitor Aoife Corridon said that her client, “on the night in question had a large amount of alcohol taken” and “does not remember it in its entirety.”

She asked the court to note that the teen, who was accompanied to her case by her social worker and youth workers from a care unit where she now resides, had not offended since.

Ms Corridon said the girl's mother had a heroin addiction problem and at the age of one the defendant had been taken into care. Since then she had been “in a variety of placements and homeless.”

Ms Corridon said the teen, who has two prior convictions for assault, had a “sporadic education” but has recently started an educational course.

The court heard that her current care placement is going well however Garda Sergeant Seamus Treacy reported to the court that the teen had gone missing twice in recent months.

Judge Smyth deferred sentencing the girl, who is on bail, for four weeks for an updated probation report on her to be furnished to the court.

In September, the girl had been placed on probation for assaulting a 26-year-old Australian woman, on Dublin's Moore Street, on October 27 last year. In that case, the court had been told earlier that she had been “roaming the streets” and using hostel accommodation, when she attacked the woman.

“The accused pushed her and knocked her to the ground, while the other person took her bag,” the court had been told.