‘very disturbing’ | 

TD contacts gardaí over viral videos of ‘vigilante’ attacks on youths in Galway

A third video has also emerged of a young vulnerable boy being slapped and punched across the face by a male youth with an English accent, before being told “you apologise and and I’m your f***king boss”.

Eugene Masterson

Today at 18:44

A Galway TD has lashed out as what he called ‘vigilante behaviour’ after videos of youths attacking two boys in separate incidents went viral.

Deputy Sean Canney confirmed to sundayworld.com he has been in touch with gardaí over what he describes as “very disturbing images” which have circulated on social media in recent days.

A third video has also emerged of a young vulnerable boy being slapped and punched across the face by a male youth with an English accent, before being told “you apologise and and I’m your f***king boss”.

All three incidents are alleged to have occurred in the Tuam area of County Galway.

In the first incident, which appears to have sparked the ‘revenge’ attacks, the young boy is told by a youth with an English accent to repeat his full name and that he was now “my little bitch”.

After the young victim is made repeat the phrase, he is slapped hard in the face. It appears the boy may also have been roughed up earlier before the video was shot.

According to sources, a group of local youths are then believed to have identified the main assailant and a friend, who shot the video.

The friend who allegedly recorded the attack is targeted in the grounds of a local school where he is repeatedly told to “get on your f***ing knees, man, now”.

The victim asks why, and his attacker replies: “Because I said so, because I f**king said so.”

The victim is pushed to his knees and ordered to say “sorry” and apologise to a named individual.

The attacker asks, “Who’s your boss now?”, before the victim replies “you”.

The victim pleads that he was only responsible for recording the video.

“Exactly, okay. You don’t do that f***ing s*** again,” shouts his attacker, as he rains more blows on him.

A third video has also emerged of another youth being beaten on the ground in a field, with several others either participating or watching on.

A garda spokesperson said they have no reports of any attacks fitting these images in the past seven days in the Tuam area.

But Deputy Sean Canney (Ind), a former government minister, told sundayworld.com he has been in touch this morning with a sergeant in Tuam Garda Station about the incidents and has made an official complaint.

“The local gardaí got the videos yesterday, like me, and they are treating them seriously and have an investigation underway,” Deputy Canney told us.

“They are pleading with anyone who has other footage not to share it on social media but to send it directly to the guards.”

Deputy Canney said when he saw the videos at first he thought it was a “set up job or video by a production company” – but then realised it was real violence.

“This is in broad daylight and in the town, and something that’s very disturbing,” he added.

“We have now had a number of incidents I know of where people have acquired a brain injury from somebody hitting them.”

The TD was not aware the attacks were sparked off by the first alleged assault on the vulnerable boy.

“When I saw the video of the person being beaten with a number of people watching on, I asked ‘hang on is there nobody there with a mind to stop this’,” he pointed out.

He hit out at the apparent revenge attacks.

“It seems to be vigilante behaviour,” he said. “If we are taking the law into out own hands, God help us.

“If something is done and it’s done wrong then there’s a way of dealing with it and gardai are the first port of call. That’s the singular message that we need to get out there.

“The guards will deal with any wrongs to try and put them right, and investigate them and see what they can do.

“Even if they are juveniles, surely the parents didn’t teach them to do this, to gang up on people and also video it and share it on social media.

“It’s brazen. There’s no shielding of what has been done and they don’t care about being identified.

“Whether they are trying to send out a message to somebody, I just don’t know, but really and truly, gardaí are now investigating it and hopefully we won’t see anything like this again.”

Sundayworld.com also contacted the school, which is currently closed for the summer holidays.