Girl (15) bound and gagged by boys in schoolyard attack
Wednesday February 27 2008
Gardai are investigating a shocking attack by a gang of boys on a teenage girl in her schoolyard.
The 15-year-old girl was grabbed by a number of boys, tied up and blindfolded before an attempt was apparently made to pull down her trousers and pull up her top.
Despite her terrified screams, nobody intervened to help her.
Gardai in Co Galway are now investigating the attack, while the school, which cannot be named for legal reasons, is also carrying out an investigation. A number of pupils have been suspended by the school for three days.
The girl's mother told Gerry Ryan on RTE2FM yesterday that she received a phone call from the school to pick up her daughter -- the only girl in a class of boys.
"She was very upset and told me she had been assaulted by some boys in her class. She said she was talking to her friends when the boys came behind her with tape. They tied her hands together with the tape, knocked her to the ground and tied her legs together.
"She was screaming and telling them to get away. They tied the scarf around her to hold her down. They then stuffed the scarf into her mouth and blindfolded her", said the upset mother.
As a number of other students gathered to watch, the boys -- up to five are believed to have been involved in the incident -- wrote all over the girl's face. The girl's mother added the attack took place in the school yard at break-time.
"She got freed a bit and stood up. They started to tug at her pants and her top -- to pull up her top. You could imagine how she was feeling. They pulled the bobbin off her hair when they had her on the ground.
"In the meantime, one of them was standing, videoing it all on his phone. Now, we don't know if it has gone around to anyone else -- we don't know.
"Some of them involved got suspended for three days as punishment", the mother said.
Before the boys ran off, they threw a cigarette lighter onto the ground beside the distraught girl. They said to her "try to get out of this one".
A few minutes later, some of the boys returned and used the lighter to burn off the tape with which she had been tied up.
The mother added: "It's as near as sexually assaulting her as far as we are concerned. We're very upset over it, the whole family are. Now, she won't go to school, she won't go back there. We don't know what to do. The guards have been very helpful, but they couldn't believe that it could happen.
"I didn't realise the seriousness of it when I brought her home.
"But her aunt said we should ring the doctor and I rang the doctor and she said to us to get her over to her straight away.
Traumatised
"My daughter is traumatised. She's not talking.
"She's a very bubbly girl and I've never had any bother with her -- the life of the house. But I'm just afraid the way this is affecting her.
"She is an honours student, very good at school and never any bother."
The mother said the school had said that they were very sorry about what had happened and had pointed out that the boys were juveniles who were under-age. But her husband said the three-day suspension was "a complete joke".
Last night Eleanor Petrie of the National Parents Council described the incident as "criminal and horrific".
Ms Petrie added: "It's a criminal attack as far as I can see."
- Brian McDonald
