A teenager left blind in one eye after a savage street assault said she’s considering a career in modelling and refuses to let the attack ruin her life.
Alanna Quinn Idris, 18, suffered a ruptured eyeball, broken cheekbone and a shattered tooth in the attack on December 30, 2021, in Ballyfermot, Dublin. This week Darragh Lyons, 19, of Weir View, Chapelizod, Dublin 20, was sentenced to four and a half years for the “savage attack”.
Alanna criticised the sentence but revealed she is now considering a career on the catwalk once she gets her confidence back. She told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “I genuinely would love to...
Read more: Brave Alanna Quinn Idris says 'life I've lost only worth four and a half years' as teen is sentenced
“I’m very self conscious and I can barely stand being in public knowing what my face looks like. It makes me very self-conscious but if and when I overcome that I would love to give modelling a go.
“I just need to build up my confidence.” Alanna said will undergo yet another surgery next month in a bid to reconstruct part of her eye socket.
She added: “It’s to level out my right side more or less, to help the prosthetic sit properly. It’s basically because my eye and the area around it has shrunk even more, it’s getting more sunken in so the prosthetic eye is not sitting right.
“Hopefully it will help the prosthetic eye to sit better and it will look right.” She added: “I’m waiting on another eye to be sent to me”
On Thursday, Judge Martin Nolan condemned what he described as the “savage attack” on Alanna by a group of young men.
The judge said if Lyons – who admitted punching Alanna – had been older, the prison term would have been substantially longer.
Lyons also admitted assault causing harm to Alanna’s friend Louis O’Sullivan during the attack, which followed a brief verbal altercation at a bus stop. Two other men facing trial in relation to the attack cannot be named.
The court heard that Alanna was knocked unconscious after she was hit in the side of the face with the saddle of an electric scooter, wielded by another person.
Lyons did not wield any weapon in the attack, but he punched Alanna on the side of her face and was also involved in punching and kicking Louis.
Alanna said despite not being happy with the sentence handed down to Lyons, she is just thankful he is now behind bars. She concluded: “Being told that what happened to me and the life that I lost was only worth four and a half years wasn’t the best to hear after all this
“From what I have been told, if the sentence is appealed there’s a chance he could get even less time.
“Regardless of that I’m happy that he’s been put away now even though the sentence was very much in his favour.”
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