Boy, 13, particpated in mugging which left woman with fractured skull
A then 13-year-old boy has been admitted taking part in a vicious mugging in Dublin which left a woman with a fractured skull.
The boy, now aged 14, pleaded guilty to the robbery at the North Circular Road at just after 8.50pm on April 4 last.
Detective Garda Ruairi O'Connor told the Dublin Children's Court the woman had been walking home from work when she was approached by two males including the boy.
She was “forcibly dragged to the ground”, he said.
“Her mobile phone was ripped from her hand,” Det Garda O’Connor added.
Her handbag, laptop and mobile phone were taken and she was “punched a number of times”, Judge John O'Connor was told.
The court heard she was taken to the Mater Hospital and suffered a fractured skull.
Det Garda O’Connor said the woman was now fine and he agreed with defence solicitor Matthew Kenny that she spent six hours in hospital and it was a hairline fracture.
He also agreed that the early guilty plea was of assistance to the woman and the 14-year-old was not the main instigator.
An older youth is awaiting trial in connection with the incident.
Mr Kenny said the 14-year-old was also awaiting sentence in the midlands for a theft offence and a probation report was being prepared.
The boy, who did not address the court, was accompanied to hearing by his mother.
Judge O’Connor described the case as a serious matter and the starting point was custodial sentence. A lot depended on the findings of a probation report, which, he warned, needed to be positive.
The boy also admitted attacking a security guard who foiled an attempt to steal clothes from a shop mannequin, in Balbriggan, Co. Dublin on a date last March. The teen struck him as he was fleeing from the shop.
He had no prior criminal convictions.
Sentencing was adjourned until a date in January.
