Woman hit teenager on head with cricket bat in case of mistaken identity

By David O’Sullivan

A woman has been handed a suspended prison sentence after admitting she hit a teenage boy over the head with a cricket bat after she mistook him for a person harassing her daughter.

Julie Maughan (38), of Kimmage Manor, Terenure, appeared before Judge Martin Nolan in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last Friday having pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to a 15-year-old boy she thought was harassing her daughter on October 8, 2022.

Garda Dean Maxwell told the court that the teenage boy had been at a birthday party with some friends earlier that night.

The boy and his friends left and were on the way to get some food.

The court heard there was nothing to indicate the boys were up to no good.

A van being driven by Maughan passed them, before reversing and coming back.

She told the boys to leave and said they were terrorising her teenage daughter.

Maughan drove the van towards them, got out with a cricket bat and hit the victim over the head.

He was treated in hospital and required four stitches.

A video of the incident was played in court.

No victim impact statement was provided to the court.

The boys called gardai, who stopped Maughan in her van later that night.

Maughan was questioned at the scene but denied being involved in any incident.

She was arrested and brought to a local garda station along with her daughter.

Their mobile phones were seized and video clips found on a phone showed Maughan encouraging her daughter to cry in front of gardai.

Maughan told gardai her daughter had been walking their dog when a group of young men began harassing her.

She said the boys told her daughter they “would do whatever they wanted” to her.

Oisin Clarke BL, defending, said the assault was “completely out of character” for Maughan.

He said she came across the wrong group of young men, and that she is “completely mortified by her actions on the day in question.”

He said “she shouldn’t have done what she did” but that “she is very unlikely to come to garda attention again”.

Maughan has seven previous convictions, the majority of which are for road traffic offences and one for possession of drugs for sale or supply.

Defence counsel told the court this offence dated back to 2013 and the drugs did not belong to Maughan.

In sentencing, Judge Nolan said Maughan was under the “mistaken impression that one of these young fellas had accosted her daughter” but that he “would not be justified” in imprisoning her.

Judge Nolan said “the assault is reasonably bad” but that “I don’t think she deserves prison at this point.”

He sentenced her to two years’ imprisonment, but suspended the sentence in full on strict conditions.