LAST UPDATE | 28 Mar

A 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL struck Limerick woman Scarlett Faulkner eleven times on her head with an iron bar, a special weekend court sitting heard Saturday night.

The girl allegedly laughed when gardaí later showed her a photograph of Ms Faulkner seriously injured following the attack, investigating gardaí told Limerick District Court.

Scarlett Faulkner (late 20s), a member of a Traveller family from Longpavement, Limerick, was found by gardaí with critical head injuries at the side of the R494 road, just outside the village of Birdhill, Co Tipperary, on Saturday, 21 March.

A 16-year-old girl arrested in connection with the attack last Thursday appeared before Saturday night’s sitting of Limerick District Court, charged with one count of assault causing serious harm to Ms Faulkner.

A 40-year-old woman appeared before the court charged with four offences arising out of the alleged assault on Ms Faulkner, including violent disorder, reckless endangerment and burglary.

Judge Carol Anne Coolican ordered reporting restrictions in respect of both accused, meaning they cannot be identified.

Gardai told Limerick District Court that gardaí attached to East Clare and north Tipperary Divisions responded to a report of a violent assault near Birdhill on the afternoon in question.

Gardaí said Scarlett Faulkner was airlifted from the scene to University Hospital Limerick and later transferred to Cork University Hospital, where she remained in a “critical condition” with life-threatening injuries”.

Gardaí told contested bail hearings for each of the two accused females that, prior to the attack on Ms Faulkner, the adult accused burgled and smashed up a caravan and that the accused girl videoed the attack on the caravan.

Gardaí alleged that the adult accused had been searching for Ms Faulkner for 24 hours prior to the attack on Ms Faulkner.

Gardaí claimed that in the lead up to the assault on Ms Faulkner, the accused woman drove a Volkswagen Touran car, carrying the accused girl and others as passengers, overtaking a number of vehicles near Birdhill as she pursued Ms Faulkner and a male who were travelling in a van.

Gardaí alleged the accused woman pursued the van for a number of miles and that she eventually rammed the van carrying Ms Faulkner and the male on the R494 road, forcing it to stop.

Gardaí told the court that dash cam footage and CCTV footage from cars and security cameras supported their evidence.

Gardaí said that, following the ramming, Ms Faulkner was seen fleeing from the van and running along the R494 towards a roundabout outside Birdhill before she was allegedly attacked by the accused girl.

Gardaí said the girl can be seen on video footage alighting from the accused woman’s car with a weapon in her hand and running after Ms Faulkner.

Gardaí claimed the accused girl caught up to Ms Faulkner and struck her at least 11 times on her head while Ms Faulkner was lying on the roadside.

“Each injury is sustained to the head. Eleven blows to the head can be observed on CCTV,” a garda told the court.

The garda described the alleged attack by the girl on Ms Faulkner as “callous”.

The garda said the girl showed a “complete lack of empathy” by laughing when gardaí later showed her a still image of Ms Faulkner at the scene.

Gardaí told the court they believe another young person at the scene recorded the assault on Ms Faulkner on a mobile phone.

It’s alleged that following the assault, the accused girl threw the iron bar at the man who had been travelling with Ms Faulkner.

The garda gave uncontested evidence that the girl told gardaí during interviews after her arrest: “I followed her and I hit her a few times with the pole, and that’s what happened.”

Neither of the accused made any reply to the charges, the court heard.

Security was tight at the nighttime court sitting, and entry to the courthouse was restricted.

A heavy presence of uniformed and plain clothes members of An Garda Síochána was present inside the court during the contested bail hearings.

Two solicitors for each accused said their clients would abide by any bail conditions.

Objecting to bail, gardaí said they believed that if granted bail, each accused would commit serious offences and not abide by any bail conditions.

Judge Coolican said she was satisfied to refuse bail for both accused.

The judge said each accused was before the court with a “presumption of innocence”.

She remanded the girl to a youth detention facility, and the woman to a remand prison, to appear via video-link before Tipperary District Court, sitting in Thurles, on 1 April.