A distraught teen who was blinded in one eye during a vicious attack broke down outside court yesterday after one member of the gang involved was caged for four-and-a-half years.
An emotional Alanna Quinn Idris, 18, said she didn’t feel the sentence her attacker Darragh Lyons received was long enough. She added: “Being told today that what happened to me and the life that I’ve lost is only worth four-and-a-half years obviously isn’t the best thing to hear. I’ve to be like this for the rest of my life.
“And in four-and-a-half years he’ll be out and about, I didn’t really feel these consequences are justified considering how I have to be now for the rest of my life.”
Read more: Teen jailed over "savage attack" that left Alanna Quinn Idris blind in one eye
She spoke after teenager Lyons, who took part in what a judge termed a “savage attack”, was jailed. The 19-year-old of Weir View, Glenaulin, Chapelizod, Dublin, pleaded guilty to assault causing serious harm and violent disorder on Ballyfermot Road on December 30, 2021.
Alanna, then aged 17, was hit in the face with the saddle of an electric scooter by another youth, fracturing her eye socket. In a victim impact statement delivered at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Wednesday, Ms Quinn Idris said her life as she knew it “came to an abrupt end” on the night of the attack.
She added: “I will never be the woman I was supposed to be – she died that night. Sometimes I wish I never woke up from when I was hit with that object.”
In his judgment Judge Martin Nolan set a headline sentence of eight to nine years but reduced this on account of mitigating factors including Lyons’ early plea, his cooperation, his lack of previous convictions and his young age.
The judge said if Lyons had been older, the prison term would have been substantially longer. Lyons also admitted assaulting causing harm to Ms Quinn Idris’ friend Louis O’Sullivan during the same attack.
The incident took place a short time after a brief verbal dispute at a bus stop between Mr O’Sullivan and another man.
Two other men are facing trial in relation to the attack and cannot be named, while a fourth man could not be identified. Lyons did not wield any weapon in the attack, but he punched Ms Quinn Idris on the side of her face and was also involved in punching and kicking Mr O’Sullivan.
Ms Quinn Idris has since had numerous reconstructive surgeries to her right eye socket and a bone graft taken from her hip. She has lost vision permanently in one eye and is likely to need a prosthetic replacement, according to a medical report submitted to court.
Ms Quinn Idris said she was still discovering all the ways “this awful attack” has hurt her and set her life in a different course. She said: “I feel embarrassed, mortified and heartbroken.
“I cannot look in the mirror without entirely disassociating and at times I’m overcome with flashbacks.
“People used to tell me I should model – I didn’t like it, it made me feel uncomfortable. I never felt I was beautiful, but I wish I’d listened to them. I’ve never been the most confident girl, but I had a little, until my attackers took that away.”
Ms Quinn Idris thanked the local community for their thoughts and prayers and the local gardai for their hard work, expressing the hope that this work will result in her attackers facing appropriate consequences
for their actions.
She said that she missed so much of the final months of her Leaving Cert year and also missed occasions including her 18th birthday, her graduation and the birth of her brother.
Garda Ciaran Murray told Edward Doocey BL, prosecuting, that Ms Quinn Idris and Mr O’Sullivan were attacked by a group of four youths. A number of the group were armed with a hurl, the saddle of an e-scooter and a knife, while both victims were unarmed, the court heard.
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