THE OWNER of a fast-food restaurant has received a three-month suspended sentence for assaulting a 14-year-old girl who was on the footpath outside his premises.
The girl broke down as she described how Frank O’Connor (63) caught her around the neck with a sweeping brush and dragged her into the Abrakebabra restaurant in Tullamore, Co Offaly where he continued to assault her.
She and five other young people had been waiting for a friend outside in the early evening of November 7th, 2007 when he called them “knackers” and told them to “get back where you came from”.
He then emerged carrying a brush and while sweeping the path, hit the girl in the back of the legs.
O’Connor told Tullamore District Court he had hit her then because she was on his property. He was angry, he said, and sick of telling young people to leave.
The girl told the court that when she asked him why he hit her, he put the brush over her head from behind and dragged her inside.
He tried to pull the brush towards her throat while she tried to push it away. He hit her when she would not let go and when she fell to the ground he struck her head and face with the handle of the brush until someone dragged her to safety.
Garda Adrian Hanley said O’Connor, of Oakfield, Tullamore admitted the assault immediately afterwards, saying he had trouble with kids outside the premises and he “couldn’t take it anymore.”
Judge Gerard Haughton said O’Connor by own admission was the aggressor.
There was no evidence the teenager was any threat or that O’Connor needed to defend himself.
His previous conviction under the Public Order Act for threatening, abusive behaviour showed he had “gall” to accuse young people outside minding their own business of being a public nuisance when he had a conviction for same.
He found O’Connor guilty and suspended his sentence on condition he pay compensation of €2,500 to the girl.