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A TEENAGER WHO left a schoolboy with life threatening injuries, including a bleed on the brain, after taking €1 from him has been jailed.
Sean Rausch (18) was also sentenced for seven other offences including muggings, attempted robberies and numerous driving offences arising out of a high speed garda chase.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard he drove the stolen car on three wheels while leading eight patrol cars and a garda helicopter on a high speed chase.
He was unlawfully at large at the time having previously been arrested for his part in the mugging and attempted mugging of two groups of schoolboys. The serious assault on another schoolboy occurred the same day as the robberies.
The 17-year-old victim of the attack was left with life threatening injuries from a brain bleed after he fell to the ground following a thump to his face and a subsequent kick to his head. He also had a fractured jaw, broken eye socket, a number of broken teeth and was missing skin from his chin.
The assault, which was carried out by both Rausch and another teenager, occurred a month before the victim’s Leaving Certificate but he managed to sit his exams with assistance. His jaw was wired shut for eight weeks and he still doesn’t have full use of his mouth.
Garda Kieran Kilcoyne told Fiona Murphy BL, prosecuting, that Rausch and another person launched an attack on the teenager as he was on his way back to school from lunchtime. The boy emptied his pockets and handed over €1 and house keys.
He was punched in the back and in the face after the attackers shouted “give the lad a stab”.
The victim fell to the ground and banged his face off the concrete before he was kicked in the jaw and in the knee.
Disturbing
Speaking of the attack, Judge Melanie Greally said it was a “most disturbing offence” during which the victim had been subjected to an assault and robbery of such ferocity that he ended up with life threatening injuries.
She said he was extremely lucky to have emerged from the attack without any severe long lasting injuries.
Rausch of Cushlawn Park, Tallaght, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to a total of four robberies, taking possession of a Hyundai Santa Fe knowing it was stolen, dangerous driving and a number of other offences.
Judge Greally said in relation to the driving offence that Rausch had put a huge number of motorists and pedestrians at serious risk.
Rausch also pleaded guilty to assault causing serious harm to the schoolboy, on the same day of the robberies, in the Old Bawn area of Tallaght. He initially denied this charge and elected for trial.
He has 42 previous convictions which were all dealt with in the District Court and include 14 for robbery, burglary, sexual assault and assault.
Judge Greally had previously sentenced Rausch to two and half years for the robberies.
Today she sentenced him to a consecutive term of three years on an endangerment charge arising out of the car chase, increasing the term to five and half years.
She also sentenced him to five years for the assault which will run alongside the other term.
Judge Greally suspended the final 12 months of the jail term on strict conditions.
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Helen Mc Entee said she’s ‘delighted’ with the new ‘bands’. But what is the positive/ the advantage of watering down, diluting, the criteria-the percentage required in order to achieve higher grades?
@Mary Linton: Can’t believe I’m doing this but going to defend the minister here. I’m an examiner for state exams and the merit was my main gripe. You have kids with little knowledge getting a merit at 55% yet at the same time, others getting the same merit on 74%. These would have good knowledge of the subject and would previously have gotten a B in the old system. Similarly, many kids who would have gotten an A in the old system, now get a Higher Merit instead of a Distinction as a huge proportion fall between 85 and 89 percent.
Everyone is a winner. Also known as dumbing down the system.
@Mark R: the grade bands have little to do with that. The whole exam has been dumbed down. At least this gives students the same chance their peers had prior to 2017.
Unions will get dog’s abuse this week but we tried to warn you. Trying to warn you about the Leaving Cert now and as usual no one will listen.
@Alan OConnor: by coincidence I had that Fatboy Slim cd on in my car at weekend — ” why try harder?”
@Mark R: not dumbing it down, restoring it to how it was before junior cycle. The highest 3 old grades were, A:85-100, B:70-85, C:55-70. Notice anything? If anything, it shows that the Junior Cycle system is a failure and Junior Cert was better.
@Mark R: that happened ages ago. It’s ridiculously simple now.
@Mark R: It’s to help all the children of our diverse nation.
So, to use a golfing ‘analogy’…..Helen has made it far easier to make ‘the cut’ ?
@Buster Lawless: she has restored what was the system for decades prior to 2017. Should never have been changed.
@Alan OConnor: indeed nothing new in the grading. It’s back to the future LOL. At least fifty years. I imagine the grading goes beyond that to the founding of the state, however that’s just a hunch.
Horray, Helen McEntee is getting the old bands back together! A lot undone but a lot more to undo. Pause the LC change. Publish the JC Reviews.
The new junior cycle is a joke. When it came in a few years back, a friend of mine working for the department said to me to just wait til they redo the leaving certificate.
It’s insane and will inevitably lead to standards dropping in 3rd level too.
It’s to make things easier for all the children of our new nation.
This is mad. I’m already struggling get my teen to study. He is bright but not interested in study. Now his is just laughing. It’s the dumbing down of society. Ridiculous
@Nat C: It’s the exact same grade branding which you used when you did your Junior Cert.
It’s great to see a load of idiots with no knowledge of the system talking about it being dumbed down. The threshold to have an opinion has been lowered to give the likes of yourselves the opportunity to speak, that’s the real issue. If you don’t have any understanding of the problem, which has been raised by the individuals involved, that have an understanding of the whole system, flaws and all, then just stay quiet. It’s people like these with zero clue about most things, other than surface level misunderstandings, that lead to a society where people know nothing, but think they’re experts.
Nothing wrong with making the exams easier for our teenagers! Too much stress on them a/way!
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