A man viciously attacked a 14-year-old boy and asked him if he wanted to die as he waited to be collected from a kid’s disco by his mother.
Thug Lee Byrne, 28, set upon the boy who was waiting outside a takeaway for his lift close to the Port Roundabout in Letterkenny.
At 12.20am on July 14th last, Byrne confronted the boy and asked if he wanted to die before assaulting him by punching him.
The terrified child ran away and hid inside the takeaway.
His other arrived and Byrne was pointed out to her but he fled only to be arrested by Gardai who arrived on the scene.
Gardai arrested Byrne who was drunk and they later found a cannabis grinder in his possession.
He abused Gardai and called them “public service w*******.”
Byrne, of no fixed abode but who was originally from Tallaght in Dublin, admitted assaulting the boy but said he had no recollection of the attack.
He appeared at Letterkenny District Court charged with assaulting the boy whom he had never known.
“It was a completely random attack and they were not known to eachother,” Gardai told the court.
A victim impact statement written by the boy and how his life had changed since the attack was handed into court but not read out.
Solicitor for the accused, Mr Rory O’Brien, said his client had read the letter and was deeply moved by how it had affected the boy.
He said he wanted to apologise to the boy but said he simply could not remember attacking the victim and had no recollection of the incident.
Mr O’Brien said Byrne’s parents had split when he was young and he had become addicted to various substances.
Days before the attack, Byrne had become homeless and was sleeping rough in Letterkenny.
A letter of apology written by Byrne to his victim was handed into court.
Judge Paul Kelly said he wanted to hear what the victim had to say about the letter of apology written by Byrne to him.
He adjourned the case until December 17th and said he was interested in hearing if the boy wanted to engage in the restorative justice process with his attacker.