Two feuding families who attacked each other's homes in raids where samurai swords, a hatchet, a shotgun, a hurling stick and a petrol bomb were used as weapons, have been bound to the peace for two years.
The case arises from incidents last summer when both families had fought with each other following an attack on one of their children. The two parties, including the parents, a friend and three children, were back in the Dublin Children's Court yesterday for day two of their binding the peace hearing.
Judge William Earley described it as a night of "mayhem" in which the defendants were fortunate no one was killed. All involved should be further prosecuted, he said.
Earlier Garda Cara O'Sullivan said she responded to two incidents where houses had been attacked on June 22nd last.Garda O'Sullivan said a piece of cloth, alleged to have been a component of a petrol bomb, a hurling stick and some poles were recovered on the night.
In evidence a man said his son had been beaten up by a friend of another family. He said his house was then raided by them; windows were smashed, some cloth was thrown in and he was attacked. He denied going to the other family's home, smashing their windows and attacking them with a samurai sword or suggesting a "shooter" should be used on them.
The man said he had just used a pickaxe handle to defend himself when his own house was attacked. His son also denied going to that family's home and smashing it up.
The woman who claimed her home had been attacked first said the man had used a sword when he raided her home. The court was told that their TV set and VCR had marks on them from where they had been struck with the sword.
She said the man was known to own swords because he was not able to fight without them and that she had gone to his house because she wanted to retaliate for the attack on her home. The man then hit her with a samurai sword but she struck back with a hurley.
Her partner said yesterday that he saw one of the man's sons, also a defendant, in his sitting room on the night after he, with his father and brother, had broken through the windows and front door. He said his young daughter had become hysterical and he threw her over his neighbour's wall to get her away from the attack.