Boy, 13, stabbed in Dublin (possibly by an 8 year old boy)

Gardaí are investigating the stabbing of a 13-year-old boy in Inchicore in Dublin.

A 23-year-old man was also injured in the attack at Myra Close on Friday evening.

Detectives say they were wounded after a number of people entered a house at around 6.15pm.

Their injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.

Gardaí would not comment on reports that an eight-year-old boy was involved in the incident.

They said: "This is a protracted investigation involving many strands, no further information is available at this stage".

A number of people have been questioned in relation to the incident.

The investigation and enquiries are ongoing.

AN eight-year-old boy allegedly stabbed a man three times in the chest and arm during a melee between feuding neighbours.

The boy is suspected of stabbing a man three times, including in the chest and arm, after he stormed a house belonging to people that his family is allegedly feuding with.

Details revealed that the also led to a 13-year-old boy being beaten over the head with a hammer.

The two victims are brothers and both suffered “horrendous injuries” according to sources.

Kilmainham gardai are investigating the row that broke out in a house in Inchicore, in the capital’s south inner city, on Saturday evening.

Two women and a 13-year-old boy were arrested by officers.

The arrested juvenile is not the boy who was beaten over the head with the hammer.

The trio were all released without charge after being held at different south city garda stations over the weekend.

The eight-year-old cannot be prosecuted for the vicious knife attack because he is below the age of criminal responsibility.

Instead, gardai are expected to liaise with specialist social workers in an attempt to “manage his situation”. It is understood that officers in the south inner city are on “high alert” over the possibility of more arrests.

A senior source revealed that two men were treated at St James’s Hospital for non-life threatening injuries. It is understood that they have both since been discharged.

“There was a 13-year-old boy who suffered serious head injuries after being beaten over the head with a hammer and a 23-year-old man who was stabbed three times, including in the chest,” the source said.

“They are expected to be OK but no one really knows what is going to happen in relation to this feud between neighbours.

“It has been going on for a number of months and it is very hard to know what really started it.”

There are fears “rampant violent criminality” in the south inner city is now spiralling out of control.

The fact that an eight-year-old boy is suspected of alleged direct involvement in an attempted knife murder is considered to be a “new low” by detectives.

The last time that laws governing the age of criminal responsibility were amended was in 2006, when it was raised from seven to 12.

This means that children who have not reached the age of 12 cannot be charged with an offence.

There is an exception for children aged 10 or 11 who can be charged with murder, manslaughter, rape or aggravated sexual assault.

However, the eight-year-old stab suspect cannot be prosecuted on a charge of attempted murder.

Sources said gardai were “frustrated” they could not take a more active involvement in the case of the child. It is understood that officers feel “heavily under-resourced” in this particular area of the city.

“What happened in that house in Inchicore on Saturday night was outrageous – it was a real low in terms of crime in Ireland,” one source said.

It was also revealed that some of the people involved in the feud have links to a man who accidentally shot dead his friend in 2011.

Dean Short, of Lally Road, Ballyfermot, admitted killing Paul McCarthy (18) at a house at Emmet Road, Inchicore, when he appeared in court two-anda-half years ago.

Short (19) and Mr McCarthy were among a group of five teenagers smoking cannabis and playing with a loaded gun in the bedroom of a house in Myra Close, Emmet Road, on May 9, 2011.

Mr McCarthy took the gun out of a bag and started laughing and waving the firearm around.

After his friends told him to get it away from them, he told them to relax and said the gun did not work, before putting it down on the bed.

Short then picked the weapon up and pointed it at Mr McCarthy and said: “How do you like it now, Paulie?”

The gun went off in his hand, shooting Mr McCarthy in the head. He died a few hours later in hospital.

All four teenagers then ran from the bedroom, but Short went back and took the gun.

He dropped it into the garden as he fled. He handed himself in to gardai the next day and admitted what he had done.

Judge Mary Ellen Ring told Short that to point a gun even in jest was recklessness in the extreme.

However, she accepted that he did not set out to kill Mr McCarthy.

She sentenced Short to five-and-a-half years in prison, with one-and-a-half years suspended.