“Miracle” no-one injured by teenager’s improvised petrol bombs

By Isabel Hayes

It was a “miracle” no-one was injured after a teenage boy threw improvised petrol bombs during a fight between opposing groups of young people from the north and southside of Dublin, a judge has said.

The now 20-year-old Dublin man was aged 16 when he took part in a dispute involving between 80 and 100 young people at a block of flats on Pearse Street, Dublin 2, on August 25, 2021, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.

He pleaded guilty to one count of possessing improvised petrol bombs with intent to cause injury. He has two previous convictions, including for cannabis possession. He can’t be named as he was a juvenile at the time.

The court heard that on the day in question, rival groups from the northside and southside converged on the block of flats armed with bats and sticks as part of an ongoing dispute between them. The teenager had four improvised petrol bombs on a balcony and he threw two of them, narrowly missing some people below.

Gardaí arrived at the scene around this time and the boy climbed onto the roof before climbing back down where he was stopped by gardaí. He voluntarily attended a garda station at a later date.

The court heard gardaí obtained footage of groups of young people, including the boy, testing bottles in a local shop to see which were glass and of others filling a jerry can of petrol beforehand.

Sentencing him, Judge Orla Crowe said it “was a miracle no-one was injured” when he threw the second improvised petrol bomb in particular, which she noted landed close to a group of people.

She took into account a number of mitigating factors, including that the boy had a troubled childhood and was taken into care at the age of four as a result of his parents having drug problems. At the time of the offence, he was in homeless accommodation.

Since the offence, he has changed his life around “to a remarkable degree” and now has ambition, stability and a bright future, the judge said.

As a result of his “exceptional” progress, she set a sentence of two years, which she suspended in its entirety on a number of conditions, including that he remain under the supervision of the Probation Service for one year.