Teenager sentenced for his part in attack on Opera Lane
The most seriously injured man sustained a serious ankle fracture and the other man was stabbed in the buttocks. It was never established during the investigation who used the knife. Opera Lane, Cork City. Pic; Larry Cummins
A thirteen-year old boy was the most aggressive one in a gang of four who attacked two men in their forties walking from a city centre pub to get a taxi home.
Garda Mark Leonard described the attack which left one man hospitalised for a fortnight and in a convalescent home for another two weeks.
The President of the Circuit Court, Judge Patricia Ryan heard the evidence at the sentencing hearing for the teenager at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
“Gardaí state that he (the 13-year-old) was the most aggressive member of the group, is that right?” Judge Ryan asked. Garda Leonard confirmed that this was the position.
The two men were on their way home from a pub in Cork city centre when they were assaulted and injured by a group of teenagers on Opera Lane.
Garda Leonard testified that on January 6 2019 at 1.15am the accused and three other young people were on Opera Lane, Cork.
“Two men left a nearby pub and walked a short distance to Opera Lane to get a taxi on St. Patrick Street. The female suspect asked for a cigarette and when they refused, she and her three accomplices (including the 13-year-old) violently assaulted them.
The most seriously injured man sustained a serious ankle fracture and the other man was stabbed in the buttocks. It was never established during the investigation who used the knife.
The most seriously injured man said in a victim impact statement that the teenagers were looking for cigarettes and money and that he and his friend refused and the young people immediately got violent.
“I was never in trouble in my life. I have not come into town at night since. We did nothing to deserve this. I don’t know why they attacked me. I am now constantly looking over my shoulder,” he said.
Defence senior counsel Elizabeth O’Connell said of the teenager facing sentence, “He was in a troubled and difficult situation at the time.
“Despite his very young age he showed signs of a dissolute life and showed no regard for the two injured parties.
“The defendant fell in with a group of other young people – troublesome young people. He was a child of 13. He was the youngest of that group. He found a sense of belonging in that group. In that context this offence occurred.
“More recent events present a U-turn on the picture that presented in January 2019. There is hard evidence that this young man – then a child – has taken a different road.
“This was the absolute nadir that he reached in absolutely deteriorating behaviour. But he is doing well now.”
Judge Ryan agreed that this was borne out by a background probation report which described the defendant, who is now 16, as a low risk of reoffending in the next 12 months.
“Even though he was described as the most aggressive one of the four, he was just 13 and given his particular circumstances and efforts to rehabilitate himself I will put him on an 18-month probation bond,” the President of the Circuit Court said.
The defendant cannot be named as he is a juvenile.
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