Schoolgirl guilty of attacking eight-year-old boy in family feud

A teenage schoolgirl has been spared a custodial sentence after she was found guilty of attacking an eight-year-old boy during a long-running feud between their families.

The boy's head was "stamped" and kicked as taunts were allegedly made about his father and uncle, the Dublin Children's Court has heard.

The 15-year-old girl schoolgirl, who has no prior criminal convictions, had denied attacking the boy, in Dublin, on date in November last year.

However, she had been found guilty after a hearing in September and was then remanded on bail until today for a pre-sentence probation report to be furnished to the court.

Defence counsel Aoife McNickle told Judge Bryan Smyth that the situation in relation to the feuding families had "calmed down".

Counsel said the girl still contested the allegations but asked the court to note that the defendant had not continued to come to garda attention.

Judge Smyth noted the girl had not approached the victim or his family since. He applied the Probation Offenders Act, sparing the girl, who was accompanied to her case by her mother, a custodial sentence and a criminal conviction for the offence.

During the trial, the victim, now aged 10, had told the court that he had been a park with his sister when the defendant approached and said 'Where is your Ma?” to his sister.

He said: “I told her to shut up and then she pushed me,” and he then “pushed her back”.

“She dragged me down on to the ground, was standing all over my face,” he had said adding that he was in tears and the girl was “hurting me”.

The boy made a full recovery after he suffered red marks to his face, small bruises and a lump on his forehead, during the attack which lasted about 20 seconds.

His teenage sister had claimed that the girl pulled him to the ground and “started kicking him in the face”.

The defendant denied being at the scene of the attack. Her mother had testified that her daughter had been playing outside their house.

However, she did not make a statement to gardaí and it had been held by a judge that she could not have been able to watch her daughter all the time.