Girl, 15, tore clumps of hair from woman's head, court hears
A 15-year-old schoolgirl tore clumps of hair out of a woman’s head in an attack, a court has heard.
The woman was set on when after she had been spat at and went to remonstrate with the girl, the Dublin Children’s Court heard.
The girl, now aged 16, had pleaded not guilty assault causing harm to the woman, who is in her thirties, at an apartment complex, in Crumlin, in Dublin, on July 14 last.
In evidence, the victim told Judge Bryan Smyth that she had been making her way back to her apartment with her son when someone spat at her.
The girl, who was nearby with two other teenagers became abusive so she walked to her apartment and went inside.
She detailed to the court that then there was a knock at her door. The girl was standing outside and handed over a mobile phone. The teenager had got her mother on the line to speak to the woman who gave the phone back.
At that point she was attacked. “I was pulled out by my hair and slipped on the ground which was damp.”
She described how the girl kicked her in her head and one of her friends was holding her down while she received further blows from them.
Clumps of hair were being pulled from her head and she bit the girl to stop her, the court was told. She also said that she had suffered bad bruising on her legs.
Prosecuting Garda Paul Keville, of Crumlin station, said the girl had later alleged she had been attacked and shown him bruising on her arm. However, he also handed in as evidence an exhibit bag containing clumps of blonde hair which had been pulled from the victim’s head.
While the girl counter claimed she had been assaulted she had not made a formal complaint. In court she relied on the argument of using justifiable force in self defence.
She admitted she phoned her mother but said the woman was not inside her apartment at that point. The girl claimed the woman threw the phone onto the ground and went to attack her. “She put her arm out, I thought she was going to attack me. We just went for each other at the same time, it was a fight.”
She denied kicking the woman on the head and said she pulled the woman’s hair harder because she was being bitten.
Judge Bryan Smyth found the girl, who was accompanied to court by her mother, guilty. The teen did not have previous convictions but had been let off under the Probation Offenders’ Act for Public Order Act offences.
Defence solicitor Kelly Breen said the girl was in school and hoped to complete the Leaving Certificate. She asked for a Probation Service report on the girl to be obtained.
Judge Smyth acceded and remanded the girl on bail to appear again in April. “It is a serious matter the question of a sentence is something which would be likely in this case,” he warned.
