Teenager gets detention for throwing paint at people on Luas

A 16-year-old boy has been sentenced to three years of detention for throwing black paint at another teenager on a crowded Luas.

The teenager was captured on CCTV attacking the victim. This victim told gardaí that the accused and a group of other local youths had launched a vicious attack on him a month earlier.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two charges of assaulting the then 16-year-old boy and criminal damage on January 23rd and February 28th , 2015.

Garda Kieran Kilcoyne said at an earlier sentence hearing the boy had one previous conviction at the time of the assaults last year but had since racked up a further 33, including violent disorder, robbery, dangerous driving and stealing cars.

He said the teenager had also not been abiding by any bail conditions, including a curfew.

Tram decomissioned

Garda Kilcoyne said other passengers were also covered in paint during the incident, including an elderly woman whose new coat, which cost her €140, was completely destroyed. A woman was left with paint on her face and on the clothes of her two children. The tram was immediately decommissioned and it cost €884 to clean the carriage.

Judge Melanie Greally sentenced the boy to three years' detention but suspended the final 18 months on strict conditions.

She described the assaults as “violent and vicious” and said his behaviour had caused disruption to the Luas service. She accepted he made admissions later and co-operated with the Garda investigation.

Judge Greally said it appeared from reports from both the Probation Service and Tusla that the teenager “might be growing up and realising the effect you have on other people”. She said if he didn’t change his behaviour he would find him himself “living a life behind bars, deprived of your freedom”.

Garda Kilcoyne agreed with Sarah-Jane O’Callaghan, defending, that her client later admitted he had hit the victim three times in the earlier assault.

He accepted he was getting into “quite a bit of trouble in Tallaght” but said that his mother was co-operating with the gardaí. Ms O’Callaghan said her client had “renewed insight into his offending behaviour since his detention” and a tutor there described him as a “likeable young man”.