File for DPP on Bohermore house attack

Date Published: 27-Oct-2009

A FILE has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions in relation to late night attacks on the front doors of houses in Bohermore by a group of drunken students who terrorised elderly people in their own homes.

Galway Gardaí have confirmed that a group of students was detained in relation to the attacks, which were captured on CCTV by a local resident after he became fed up by the amount of early morning incidents occurring in the area since the students returned last month.

The footage, which shows the group of five students repeatedly ringing door bells and kicking at front doors in the early hours of last Wednesday morning week (October 14), has generated unprecedented interest on the Internet with almost 13,700 ‘views’ since it was uploaded onto the YouTube website last week.

A spokesman for the Gardaí confirmed yesterday that they had spoken to four males and one female in relation to the antics of the drunken students and were awaiting instructions from the DPP.

According to the spokesman, Gardaí in a patrol car spoke to the students just five minutes after the attacks which were featured on the two minute YouTube video and they were able to identify all five from the CCTV footage after taking their names and addresses at 2.30am on October 14.

Meanwhile, the man who captured the footage on CCTV has told the Galway City Tribune that local residents have been pleasantly surprised by how quiet the street has been in the early hours since the pictures caused such controversy in the local media last week.

Residents had claimed that random attacks on homes had become a regular occurrence since the third level students returned to the area five to six weeks ago.

“Everything has been very quiet here since, bar the odd few shouting on their way home,” he said. “The students seem to have been very well behaved since it appeared in the Galway City Tribune.

Things here are back to normal and a lot of people are delighted. “I myself had to take four days off work due to all the disturbances late at night. Damage has been done to the door of my neighbours’ house and they are still planning to move out because of these attacks. There were a couple of parties in Cill Ard last night, but thankfully the students did not come down the street kicking and banging on doors.

“Last Thursday night, I got my first proper night’s sleep in five weeks. Before that, I was missing work, having to get up at 4am and then sleeping in during the day.”