Judge Mary Collins has called for stronger efforts to stop alcohol being brought on to trains. It was "no longer safe" to use trains because there was no monitoring of passengers who carried drink, she said in Dublin District Court yesterday.
She was speaking after hearing that a 13-year-old DART passenger was repeatedly assaulted and had the word "rat" written on his forehead by two drunken passengers.
Stephen Byrne (22), of Seacliffe Drive, and Stephen Aherne (19), of Stapolin Lawns, both Baldoyle, Dublin, pleaded guilty to assaulting the boy on March 13th, 1999. The court was told they brought alcohol aboard in a sports bag and drank it on their journey from Sutton to Glasthule. The boy had boarded separately in Sutton and was given drink by the pair and was soon "quite intoxicated", Garda Peter Rennicks told the court.
Aherne punched and slapped the boy intermittently.
Byrne slapped and kicked him and used a marker to write "rat" on his forehead.
This continued until Glasthule where train security staff found the boy in an incoherent state and put him back on the train to Howth. He suffered bruising, a chipped tooth and a bloodied nose. He went to Temple Street Children's Hospital from where he was discharged later that day.
Judge Collins heard that Aherne was before the court earlier last week for being without car insurance and for crashing into a taxi. The case had been put back to January for payment of compensation and his lawyer asked that the assault case also be adjourned until then.
Judge Collins adjourned both cases to January 24th for probation reports.
She said she was concerned about the amount of drink which appeared to be allowed on trains:
"It is no longer safe to go on trains with the level of alcohol there appears to be on them and there needs to be something done about it - it is quite unacceptable."