Gardai investigating the weekend attack on a 12-year-old German student in Dun Laoghaire now believe she may not have been slashed with a broken bottle.
The girl was with four other foreign students on the East Pier when they were surrounded by seven Irish young people at about 9.45 p.m. last Friday night. A dispute began when a girl, said to be aged between 14 and 15, tried to take the young German's rucksack and she resisted.
Gardai who interviewed her yesterday report that according to her account she fell to the ground in the melee and when she got to her feet found her face had been cut. "So it's not clear she was cut with a bottle at all," said Det Insp Eamon O'Reilly. "Her face could have been cut by something on the ground."
The group, aged between 14 and 15, later carried out another assault on three foreign students in nearby Royal Marine Road. A young Japanese student was hurt in this attack.
The German girl needed three stitches in her lower jaw following the attack. "She's in good shape," said Det Insp O'Reilly yesterday evening. "She was back at school this morning."
He said her parents had been contacted but were not coming to Ireland. "They're taking it pretty easy," he said, adding that the girl was probably due to go home within the next week anyway.
Gardai interviewed 15 people yesterday in relation to the at tack, including the German girl.
Meanwhile, the Dun Laoghaire Business Association is to hold an emergency executive council meeting this evening to discuss the "ongoing crime situation" in the town.
The honorary secretary of the association, Mr Breasal O Caollai, has called for the immediate introduction of closed-circuit television cameras throughout the town as well as on the pier and around the harbour.
Although a survey has been carried out by local gardai for the erection of CCTV cameras, and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has begun laying the necessary ducting, the cameras are not due until next year and none is planned for the pier area.
He also said there should be eight gardai on foot patrol in the town and around the harbour at any one time. "This is a huge area, and these patrols naturally require back-up," he said.
The Dun Laoghaire Harbour Authority has said it plans to install at least one more CCTV camera at the head of the East Pier, where pedestrians first enter the area, in the next few months. It already has one in the ferry terminal building.
Mr Michael Hanahoe, chief executive of the authority, said that as a result of last Friday's incidents it was now considering another camera about halfway down the pier.
"In the three years that I have been chief executive, this is the most brutal event that has taken place around the harbour. There have been minor incidents, but this has shocked everyone."
Three members of the authority's harbour police were on patrol around the harbour last Fri day night, although none witnessed the attack. "They did not become aware of it until Saturday," he said. The authority employs 20 harbour police.
"They are employed by us and are empowered to patrol the harbour under the 1996 Harbour Act," he said. "They have no powers of arrest and in an incident where a crime is being or has been committed, they call in the gardai. They have the power to report crimes."
