A man has paid tribute to his courageous friend who sustained injuries when he rushed to the assistance of a 16-year-old girl who was assaulted in broad daylight.
The incident occurred at Chapel Square in the town of Fermoy, Co Cork, at 1.20pm on Monday when the girl was out walking alone.
Two men approached her with one man allegedly assaulting her. Witnesses said the girl was grabbed by her clothing.
Two men in their late teens rushed to the assistance of the young woman having witnessed the incident and hearing her cries for help.
Brandon Geary was on his way to meet his friends in the town at lunchtime on Monday when he received a phone call alerting him to the news of the shocking attack.
“It is a traumatic experience. The fella that helped out the girl is one of my closest friends. He went over to help her. The man turned around and started hitting him.
“He fought back and the man’s (perpetrator’s) friend turned around with a glass bottle straight to the side of the head.
"He didn’t even know he was bleeding. He was going to walk away and the lads said ‘Oh my god you are pumping bleeding.
"They called an ambulance and he came home with two stitches to the side of his head.”
Brandon, who is in his late teens, said he wouldn’t wish what happened to the young girl on his “worst enemy.”
“Lunchtime. School out. This girl is only 16. My friend always tries to protect everyone else. He is a hero in everyone’s eyes. It is very bad. You wouldn’t think it would happen here. He (my friend) didn’t get the worst he could have got. Thank god nothing happened to his brain.”
Brandon said that young people in the area are fearful since the attack.
“Young girls are scared. Definitely. There was the main attacker and another person beside him. He had the girl grabbed. It is awful. I was on the way to meet my friend and his sister rang me and said he he had been attacked. The man hit him with a bottle and bottle shattered in his head.
"He had to go up to Cork University Hospital for stitches.”
One of the young men who helped intervene in the attack only spoke to confirm his involvement. However, he didn’t want to speak about the incident which had left him visibly shaken.
A man aged in his 30s remains in Garda custody in Fermoy in connection with the incident.
The teenage girl was taken to hospital in Cork for treatment. She was not physically injured but was left traumatised by the lunchtime attack which took place when she was walking through the square on her own.
Local businessman and Fine Gael Councillor Noel McCarthy said: “It is a shocking incident. My thoughts are with the victim and her family. Hopefully, she will make a full recovery. The two young lads (who went to her aid) are heroes.”
Meanwhile, locals in Fermoy town centre expressed their shock about the incident.
One elderly woman, who declined to be named, said that she was related to one of the young men who intervened to help the girl.
“It is desperate to be attacked like that in daylight. You would be afraid now to go out or to go down any lane ways. You don’t know who is going to come out on top of you. Even people coming to the door now you are afraid to open the door.”
Martin Dennehy, who lives across the road from the square, said: “These perpetrators should be hammered. I feel strongly about that because I think there is too much the slap of a wrist. And it is going on everywhere. It is not acceptable.
"They [the courts] are too lenient on these individuals."
