A LIMERICK man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for leaving a schoolboy with permanent brain damage after beating him unconscious in an unprovoked attack.
The 18-year-old, from Lisanalta, Dooradoyle, who was in the care of the HSE at the time, was caught on camera inflicting 65 kicks and stamps to his 16-year-old victim’s head, along with two stamps to his chest and 26 punches.
He had originally been charged with attempting to murder the boy on July 23rd, 2010 as the victim waited for his mother at a service station in Corbally, Co Clare. However, a plea to intentionally causing his victim serious harm was accepted in the Central Criminal Court.
CCTV footage of the almost five-minute, frenzied attack was shown in court yesterday, after Mr Justice Paul Carney warned that anyone who was squeamish should leave.
The footage showed the victim sitting on a windowsill when he was attacked by the accused.
The attacker repeatedly punched, kicked and stamped on the boy’s head as he lay motionless on the ground and the assault continued long after the boy had stopped moving.
The accused then left his victim’s body lying in a pool of blood on the forecourt. A car was seen driving by his body before the accused returned a few moments later to stamp, kick and punch the unconscious teenager again.
The court heard previously 11 eyewitnesses observed the attack, but it was not until this point a man described in court as a “good Samaritan” was seen intervening and moving the attacker away.
The victim was taken to Limerick hospital, where he was kept on life support for eight days before being transferred to the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire.
A medical report said the teenager still suffers from weakness on his right side, deafness, as well as memory and speech problems.
The court heard the accused was in the care of the HSE when he carried out the attack. He was being transferred back to his accommodation by two female social care workers when he demanded the driver stop the car at the service station.
He had wrongly thought that his victim was involved in having his friend imprisoned for life.
The victim’s mother had previously given a victim impact statement. She said the service station was her usual place to collect her son because she felt it would be safe. However, that night she was greeted by her son’s body lying on the ground, recognising him only from his clothes.
“He had been battered so badly and his head was swollen and black,” she said. “It’s a vision I’ll take with me to my grave.”