Teen girl spared jail after violent robberies and assault on Garda sergeant

A 17-year-old girl has been spared a custodial sentence for two violent robberies, having a baseball bat as a weapon and assaulting a Garda sergeant.

The girl had been remanded in custody earlier this month after the Dublin Children's Court heard that six pre-sentence probation reports on her were negative and she had not fully engaged with supports to help her address her use of drugs and alcohol.

The court had also directed psychiatric and psychological assessments of her to be carried out there.

Today, the girl appeared again and Judge Eamon O'Brien agreed to follow a recommendation to place her on supervised probation for 12 months.

The south Dublin girl, who has been released from custody, has been ordered to follow the advice of her probation officer to divert her from re-offending.

Otherwise the case could be brought back to court and a custodial sentence imposed.

Earlier the court had heard that she was bright but she had been exposing herself to high risk situations through alcohol abuse and at one point her mother was “at the end of her tether” with her.

The defendant had pleaded guilty earlier to robbery of two teenage girls, one of whom was aged 14, in Ballybrack in south Co Dublin, on October 5, 2009.

During a hearing last July, Garda Georgina Reilly had told the court that a girl was being robbed of her iPod.

Another teen girl, stepped in to help her but was attacked by the defendant. “She grabbed her by her hair and punched her several times to the head,” Garda Reilly had said.

While the accused was arrested, she broke free and hit the girl again with handcuffs.

The victim “lost some of her hair from being pulled and had bruises to her face and torso when she was kicked.”

It was also discovered the accused had also set on another girl (aged 14) who had been also robbed and had her mobile phone taken.

The teen, who has no prior criminal convictions, has also admitted assaulting a sergeant at Shankill garda station and possessing the baseball bat at an offensive weapon at a house in south Dublin, on another date.