A student whose "ghetto-blaster" was smashed by a man with a lump hammer has been awarded £5,500 in damages. The student, who was 16 at the time, was assaulted by another man about six weeks later.
Mr Neil Kelly (22), of Beauvale Park, Dublin, was awarded £2,000 damages in Dublin Circuit Civil Court yesterday against a decorator, Joseph Shore, and £3,500 damages against a former tax inspector, Eamonn Corcoran, both of Whitethorn Crescent, Artane, Dublin.
Shore said he struck Kelly's ghetto-blaster a single blow near his home on New Year's Eve in 1990.
Corcoran told Judge Diarmuid Sheridan he had pushed Kelly and knocked him over on February 8th, 1991, when he thought Kelly was about to head-butt him.
Both defendants said there had been difficulties in the Whitethorn estate with young people, and the local residents' association had been trying to deal with it in association with gardai, who had advised against vigilante patrols. They emphasised there had never been any allegation of misconduct against Mr Kelly.