Mother and son plead guilty to charges in connection with street knife attack on Limerick man

A mother and her teenage son have both pleaded guilty to charges in connection with a knife attack on a Limerick man in his 20s which required ‘upwards of 80 stitches’ to a head-wound.

At Ennis Circuit Court, the 17-year old Co Clare teenager has pleaded guilty to the assault causing harm of Jeffrey Ryan (25) at Francis Street, Kilrush contrary to Section 3 of the Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act on June 13 last.

At the arraignment hearing at the circuit court for the two accused, the teenager’s 38-year old mother has pleaded guilty to possessing a knife at the same location on the same date.

The mother has also pleaded guilty to assaulting Ava Moloney on June 13th at Francis Street, Kilrush contrary to Section 2 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997.

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Both Ms Moloney and Mr Ryan are originally from Croom in Co Limerick.

The Clare teenager is currently on remand at Oberstown Detention Campus at Lusk in Co Dublin and appeared in person in court for the arraignment where he entered his guilty plea.

Counsel for the State, Sarah Jane Comerford BL (instructed by State solicitor for Clare, Aisling Casey) said that the pleas are acceptable to the DPP on a full facts basis.

Counsel for the teenage accused, Patrick Whyms BL said that his client has no previous convictions and asked that Judge Francis Comerford direct a Probation Report

Mr Whyms (instructed by solicitor, Patrick Moylan) said that probation reports at Oberstown can be turned around quite quickly. Judge Comerford directed that a Probation Report be carried out.

Mr Whyms asked that the case be dealt with as soon as possible as his client is a young person and has been on remand at Oberstown since the commission of the offence last June.

Ms Comerford said that the guilty pleas were first indicated last week to the State.

Counsel for the mother, Amy Nix BL (instructed by solicitor, Monica Roche) said that her client “has never been in trouble before” and asked that Judge Comerford direct that a Probation Report be carried out on her client.

Ms Nix said that her client has a child with additional needs. 

Judge Comerford said that he would defer a decision on the Probation Report for the mother until hearing the evidence in the case.

Judge Comerford directed that victim impact statements from the two injured parties in the case 

When the case was before the district court, an outline of the State case was made where it heard that the  mother allegedly drove her son to the scene of the knife assault on June 13 last.

After viewing photos of Mr Ryan’s injuries at a previous district court sitting, Judge Alec Gabbett said that the alleged injured party has suffered “very serious lacerations to his face” where he sustained a wound from the top of his head, running down his hairline on his forehead across to his ear.

He said: “You will see that the alleged injured party had upwards of 80 stitches with a view to putting back his forehead together again and also fixing his ear.”

The mother cannot be named as that would lead to the identification of her co-accused and son who is a minor and cannot be identified.

Judge Comerford further remanded the teenager on detention at Oberstown and the mother on bail to appear at Ennis Circuit Court on March 4.