Kildare teen suffers broken arm in filmed attack in playground
Finian Coghlan and Eva Osborne
The assault of a Kildare teenager on Friday evening was recorded and shared.
The 14-year-old suffered a broken arm following the incident.
The mother of the victim spoke with the Kildare Nationalist about the assault, which will see her son in plaster for up to 10 weeks.
“He was down in the park around 6:20pm when four of them dragged him off the swing and started beating him,” she said.
“I got sent a video of the assault, which is a very hard watch.”
At least four assailants took turns in hitting him. Only one of these was fist-punching, while the other three aimed vicious kicks at his torso and head, with the final kick landing square on the victim’s nose from a run-up.
The injured youth was taunted as the assault took place.
“I know the names and the guards are involved. They’re aged from 15 down to 11," his mother said.
Speaking on Liveline on RTÉ Radio 1, the teenager's mother said she was in Tesco when she got a called from her son's number.
A woman was on the other end when she answered her phone, telling her that her son was attacked.
"She told me my son's after being attacked, so obviously I jumped in my car and raced down. He was on the ground, holding his arm. The colour in his face was gone and he just explained to me that he got attacked," she said.
It was worse than I intended to see.
"His face was absolutely pale, his lips were purple. I was in a panic. I just broke down crying when I seen him.
"His girlfriend and the people who were there, they were very upset as well. I'm so grateful that there were other adults there that were able to break it up."
On the video, the teenager's mother said: "As I got into A&E, I actually got the video sent to me. How horrific it really was, to see him on the ground getting kicked and punched like that. It's very upsetting."
She said her son was the victim of an "unprovoked attack".
"I've watched a little bit, but I cannot watch the full video because them kicks to the head are just absolutely horrendous," she said.
