Unprovoked attack - Harmonstown

Fiolina

My daughter and her friend (both 13) got off the DART in Harmonstown yesterday evening at about 7.45pm.
They were followed on to the road by a girl and bloke and out of nowhere the girl punched my daughter's friend in the face. My daughter went to try and help and she was punched in the stomach and leg and the girl had a hold of her hair. The bloke stood by watching it happen(they think he might have being trying to film it on his phone).
Only for a man interevening, I dread to think what would have happened. This all happened very close to my house in what is an extremely quiet neighbourhoodand although it was getting late, it was still bright.
My reason for posting this is just for people to warn their children that no matter where you are, however close to home, you are never safe. Make sure you always know where they are and that they have a phone with them. Thanks for reading.

TheBandicoot

This will only become more frequent with the good weather coming up. I dread summer for this reason, it attracts the scum.

glossy

Hope they ok, what a awful thing to happen to them. Did you report it to the guards.

jane82

I dont think its a good idea to teach your children that they are never safe no matter where they are. They have to live.
Hope everyone is ok.

Pawwed Rig

jane82 wrote: »

I dont think its a good idea to teach your children that they are never safe no matter where they are. They have to live.
Hope everyone is ok.

Agree with this completely.

What did the Guards say?

Fiolina

Hi OP here. I take back what I said about kids not being safe wherever they are. What I meant is that you'd imagine (or maybe me being naive) that something like this wouldn't happen on your (supposedly quiet) road.

The guards were brilliant. They were here in about 5 minutes,took statements etc but they said that there's nothing they can do as it's a section 2 or something like that. They spoke to the girls about the importance of always having a phone,ringing 999 etc.

My daughter is so shook up over it I'd say it will take her awhile to get over it. She has bruises and aches and pains today but it could have been so much worse I suppose.

Pawwed Rig

Fiolina wrote: »

My daughter is so shook up over it I'd say it will take her awhile to get over it. She has bruises and aches and pains today but it could have been so much worse I suppose.

Poor girls. Would they consider some kind of self defence classes? These things happen unfortunately. I grew up not too far from you and was seriously assaulted at least 6 times before the age of 16. There is alot of human excrement in some areas in that neck of the woods.

Fiolina

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

Poor girls. Would they consider some kind of self defence classes? These things happen unfortunately. I grew up not too far from you and was seriously assaulted at least 6 times before the age of 16. There is alot of human excrement in some areas in that neck of the woods.

That's a good way of describing them. Yeah her dad is looking into self defence classes. Jesus, assaulted 6 times?? The mad thing is I've always known that station and laneway was dodgy and I'd even be wary walking up there myself but this happened on the road in front of kids playing. Anyway, thanks for the replies. I really needed to get this off my chest.

Santa Cruz

Whats this nonsense about the Gardai saying there's nothing they can do. This was a Section 2 assault under the Non Fatal Offences Act.
There is no power of arrest but on conviction a person can be sentenced to six months imprisonment.
The matter can still be investigated and court proceedings brought. As long as these thugs think they can get away with this they will continue to do so. If you are not happy with the Garda lack of action contact the local Superintendent, tell him you want a proper investigation and that if you are not happy you will go to GSOC. These individuals must live in the locality and a little bit of proper investigation will find them.

Self defence classses are good also as they will teach a person to respond rapidly. The scum bags don't expect people to retaliate and get a shock when they do

RebelButtMunch

TheBandicoot wrote: »

This will only become more frequent with the good weather coming up. I dread summer for this reason, it attracts the scum.

Yeah. Feckin sun. I blame it too.

maringo

Hope the Gardai do their job and investigate this assault. I wouldn't be getting fobbed off. Its probably a minor incident to them but has a very bad effect on the victims. The scum are few in number and can't be allowed intimidate and attack and get away with it without an effort being made to track them down. Hope the girls recover their confidence to get out and about and well done to that passing gentleman who rescued the girls.

spurious

maringo wrote: »

Hope the Gardai do their job and investigate this assault. I wouldn't be getting fobbed off. Its probably a minor incident to them but has a very bad effect on the victims. The scum are few in number and can't be allowed intimidate and attack and get away with it without an effort being made to track them down. Hope the girls recover their confidence to get out and about and well done to that passing gentleman who rescued the girls.

The dirt that carried out this assault will do something bigger later. If the guards clamped down on them at this stage they wouldn't get the chance later. I suppose their parents thought they were in the library studying, the usual butter wouldn't melt excuses.