'They could kill someone': gang of youths 'cough on' nurse

Fury: Nurse Susan Nutley was accosted by a gang of youths in Clontarf while out jogging

Allison Bray

March 25 2020 02:30 AM

A young nurse who was swarmed by a gang of more than 15 teenagers on bicycles who purposely coughed on her and two elderly people in a sick social media stunt said she hopes they are arrested and locked up.

Susan Nutley, (30), a nurse at a leading Dublin children's hospital, said she was absolutely appalled by the twisted behaviour of the gang who swarmed her while she was out for a jog on the Clontarf seafront on Monday evening.

"I did three night shifts and I thought I would get out for some fresh air," she said.

But as she was jogging along a footpath near Bull Island around 6pm the gang of teens stood next to each other, blocking her and other pedestrians from walking past.

"I could see a man in his 90s walking with a frame and an elderly woman with him in a wheelchair," she said.

Yet the gang of hoodie- and tracksuit-clad youths aged between around 13 and 17 refused to get out of their way and started coughing on them and laughing when she asked them to give her space, she said. "There was one on either side of me and in front all laughing and jeering," she said, noting the boys were less than two feet away from her during the ordeal.

"They could possibly kill someone. They don't know how dangerous this is," she said.

"It broke my heart," she said.

She is hopeful the thugs will be identified by CCTV footage from local shops.