A 15-second video showing a violent assault on a teenage girl in Dublin last February must be removed from the internet and an arrest must be made in the case if the force of law is to have any respect, a Fine Gael councillor has said.
Dr Bill Tormey said the video clip, posted on the YouTube website, showed the perpetrator clearly, and should be removed.
The clip, which appears to have been recorded using a camera phone, depicts a teenage boy, dressed in black tracksuit bottoms and an oversized, zipped-up black bomber jacket.
The events are outdoors, at night and there appear to be a number of teenage boys and girls gathered outside one of the tower blocks in Ballymun. The boy's face is clearly visible as he takes a number of steps back and then runs towards the girl, jumps in the air and kicks her "kung fu style" in the side of the face.
The girl, aged 15, with brown hair tied back, staggers to the side and, losing her balance, falls forward, her head hitting the ground by a waist-height bollard. Her father said she broke her arm in the incident.
She is wearing a denim mini-skirt, black tights and a zip-up, quilted jacket, while the boy has black hair and pale skin. There is some whooping and cheering during and after the assault, and someone goes to the girl's assistance.
Yesterday evening the number of times the video had been viewed was 7,799.
Cllr Tormey has called for the boy in the video to be arrested and charged with assault. "You just cannot have this kind of public assault, clearly visible to thousands of people on the internet, and for nothing to be done about it. The young man is clearly, clearly identifiable. What is law and order coming to?"
A spokesman for the Garda in Ballymun said the "matter was investigated and someone was interviewed in connection with it".
