Court told 13-year-old was most aggressive member of gang who assaulted two men on street

Juvenile given 18-month probation bond as judge told of his efforts to rehabilitate himself since the attack

The court heard that two men were attacked as they walked from a city centre pub to get a taxi.

A 13-year old boy was the most aggressive in a gang of four who attacked two men in their 40s walking from a city centre pub to get a taxi home.

Garda Mark Leonard described the attack which left one man hospitalised for a fortnight and in a convalescent home for another two weeks.

The president of the Circuit Court, Judge Patricia Ryan, heard the evidence at the sentencing hearing for the teenager at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

“Gardaí state that he (the 13-year-old) was the most aggressive member of the group, is that right?” Judge Ryan asked. 

Garda Leonard confirmed that this was the position.

The two men were on their way home from a pub in Cork city centre when they were assaulted and injured by a group of teenagers.

Garda Leonard testified that on January 6, 2019, at 1.15am, the accused and three other young people were on Opera Lane, Cork.

“Two men left a nearby pub and walked a short distances to Opera Lane to get a taxi on St Patrick Street. The female suspect asked for a cigarette and when they refused, she and her three accomplices (including the 13-year-old) violently assaulted them.

“The defendant kicked (the man who was most seriously injured) when he was on the ground. And he can also be seen on CCTV punching both injured parties,” Garda Leonard said.

The most seriously injured man sustained a serious ankle fracture and the other man was stabbed in the buttocks. It was never established during the investigation who used the knife.

The most seriously injured man said in a victim impact statement that the teenagers were looking for cigarettes and money and that he and his friend refused and the young people immediately became violent. 

I thought my life was over when this happened. I thought they were going to kill me.

“I was never in trouble in my life. I have not come into town at night since. We did nothing to deserve this. I don’t know why they attacked me. I am now constantly looking over my shoulder,” he said.

Defence senior counsel Elizabeth O’Connell said of the teenager facing sentence: “He was in a troubled and difficult situation at the time.

“Despite his very young age, he showed signs of a dissolute life and showed no regard for the two injured parties.

“The defendant fell in with a group of other young people — troublesome young people. He was a child of 13. He was the youngest of that group. He found a sense of belonging in that group. In that context this offence occurred.

“More recent events present a U-turn on the picture that presented in January 2019. There is hard evidence that this young man — then a child — has taken a different road.

This was the absolute nadir that he reached in absolutely deteriorating behaviour. But he is doing well now.

Judge Ryan agreed that this was borne out by a background probation report which described the defendant, who is now 16, as a low risk of reoffending in the next 12 months.

“Even though he was described as the most aggressive one of the four, he was just 13 and given his particular circumstances and efforts to rehabilitate himself I will put him an 18-month probation bond,” she said.

The defendant cannot be named as he is a juvenile.