Cowardly attacks

FEW crimes are more cowardly or more serious than the attack in Dublin on a man with special needs which left him needing stitches for a large wound to his head. Making matters even worse, the teenage perpetrators threatened to set their traumatised victim on fire.

The severity of the incident, which took place near a public park in Clontarf where teenagers regularly gather for drinking sessions, suggests they were high on drugs. So deep were his head wounds that doctors at Beaumont Hospital had to insert staples to close them.

This follows an equally worrying incident recently in Carrigaline, Co Cork, where a 14-year-old boy with autism was attacked by a gang of youths who then posted footage of the ordeal on social media. On that occasion the teenager was force-fed twigs and made expose himself for the gang.