Woman bottled boy in attack on the Dart

BLOOD: Teen passenger needed six stitches to head after assault

Fiona Ferguson and Sonya McLean

A young Dublin woman who assaulted a boy with a broken bottle at Shankill Dart station after a verbal altercation between two groups of young people has had her sentencing adjourned.

Allwyn O'Connell (20), with an address at Rathsallagh Park, Shankill, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm to the then 17-year-old male in March, 2007.

Judge Tony Hunt said there had been "toing and froing" between the two groups but that O'Connell's reaction was "out of all proportion to what was going on".

He said: "This is the kind of behaviour that makes people reluctant to go out for the night."

Judge Hunt adjourned sentencing until April to allow a probation report be prepared.

Garda Thomas Devereux told Shane Costelloe, prosecuting, that the victim was waiting on the the platform in Shankill Dart station for the next train when he and his friends noted a group of young girls who were shouting abuse at them.

He crossed the tracks to get away from the group but Gda Devereux said the abuse continued across from the platforms and described it as coming from both the victim and O'Connell.

Blood

O'Connell, described by the victim as the leader of the group of girls, then came across to his platform with her friends and started to further verbally abuse him before they all started hitting him.

He pushed them off and tried to run away, when he saw O'Connell pick up a bottle and smash it against a wall before she continued to shout at him.

O'Connell continued to assault the victim and he felt blood on his left ear and thumb. He ran to get away and was stopped by a member of the public who gave him first aid and the gardai were alerted.

He received six stitches to his left ear and five stitches to his thumb where he was struck with the bottle.

O'Connell was arrested after the victim gave a description of her and gardai viewed CCTV.

Gda Devereux agreed with Justin McQuade, defending, that O'Connell had placed herself at the scene and that her mother was a respectable individual who had cooperated with the gardai.

Karen Quigley, O'Connell's mother, told Mr McQuade that her daughter suffered from low self-esteem due to learning difficulties and developed a "serious" drug problem with "heroin, cocaine and ecstasy" after leaving school at 14.

She said her daughter was addressing her drug addiction and was in a stable relationship with a man.

hnews@herald.ie