Girl died two weeks after blow to head, inquest hears

A TEENAGE girl died after being struck on the head by a man who had been drinking in a public house all day and had consumed at least 10 pints, an inquest was told yesterday.

Rebekah Kiely (15) suffered severe head injuries as a result of being hit on the head when she went to the rescue of a friend who was being attacked by a man in the car park of St Bridget's GAA club in Castleknock, Dublin.

Ms Kiely, a Junior Certificate student from Maple Avenue, Carpenterstown, Castleknock, and a promising musician, died on November 24th, 2006, at Beaumont Hospital, exactly two weeks after the incident.

Her family said her death illustrated the need for the prosecution of pubs and off-licences which sell alcohol to clearly inebriated people.

"We need to change this uncivilised relationship we have with alcohol in Ireland. We need to treat alcohol differently and people who abuse the laws, publicans and people themselves, need to change," her father Maurice Kiely commented. The inquest heard that Gerard Farmer (47) and his friend David Griffiths (43) had both been drinking for most of the day in the Barbican pub in Castleknock. Farmer left the pub in the early evening and returned to pick up Mr Griffiths when bar staff at the pub refused to keep serving him. The pair then drove to the Esso service station on the Old Navan Road where the initial row happened.

Mr Griffiths, who admitted that he had started the altercation that led to Ms Kiely's death, acknowledged that he had been "dangerously drunk" when he started fighting with teenager Martin Munly at about 8.30pm on the night of November 10th, 2006.

"I was in a violent rage and he was the first person in my sights," Mr Griffiths told the Kiely family solicitor Michael Finucane.

"I had drunk so much and I have a temper and a tendency to do such things". Garda Declan O'Reilly said the evidence of a barman and Mr Griffiths's own evidence suggest that they started drinking about midday and would have drank between 10 and 13 pints of beer each.

Griffiths was convicted last year in relation to the incident and given a €150 fine for violent and abusive behaviour. A charge of assault against him was dropped.

Farmer died of natural causes related to an epilepsy condition six weeks after the incident, coincidentally on the same day that the DPP had said that he should be prosecuted for her death.

Ms Kiely was among 36 teenagers who had gathered on that Friday evening at the 9/11 deli in the service station.

The inquest heard she had been drinking beer and port which was mixed with Ribena.

State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy said the teenager had not been drinking "excessively".

Mr Griffiths told the inquest that he had become annoyed when he claimed that some of the party had asked him to buy cigarettes which he said was a regular occurrence.

The incident which led to Ms Kiely's death occurred in the car park of the GAA grounds which backs on to the Esso service station. Eyewitness Ciara Geoghegan said Mr Farmer had gone to his car to pick up a baton object which was about 18 inches long and had gone to attack Mr Munly.

"He swung the baton from the side and it hit Rebekah on the lefthand side. She fell back to the ground. I turned around and her eyes was closed and her neck was limp. She was standing in the wrong place. He was trying to hit Martin Munly," she said.

The jury returned a verdict of "unlawful killing".