Teenager’s three-and-a-half-year detention suspended after assault

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Judge Martin Nolan confirmed a three-and-a-half-year detention period and suspended it in full at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on 30 July 2019, after noting that the teenager had engaged well with the Probation Service. The proceedings were reported on 30 July 2019.

The unnamed teenager pleaded guilty to assault causing serious harm. The assault took place at St Stephen’s Green in Dublin on 13 August 2016 and left the victim, a young man with autism, blind in his right eye.

At an earlier hearing, Judge Nolan had imposed the three-and-a-half-year detention period and deferred it for one year, on condition that the teenager be supervised by the Probation Service and obey its instructions and directions. The judge warned that he would end up in detention if he did not comply.

The court heard that the teenager put the victim in a headlock and punched him around four times in the right eye. After the victim lost consciousness, the teenager kicked him again in the head. Two medical reports confirmed that the loss of vision was permanent.

The teenager told gardaí he had not realised his earlier ‘slagging’ was being taken seriously and wanted to apologise for it and the harm he had caused. His barrister, Pieter Le Vert, said he had never intended the victim to suffer such devastation. A probation report assessed him as at low risk of reoffending and said he had insight and remorse.