A 16-year old girl allegedly struck Limerick woman Scarlett Faulkner 11 times to the head with an iron bar, a special court sitting heard on Saturday evening.
The girl allegedly laughed when gardaí later showed her a photograph of Faulkner seriously injured following the attack, investigating gardaí told Limerick District Court.
Faulkner, 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, March 21st.
A 16-year old girl arrested on Thursday in connection with the attack appeared before the court charged with one count of assault causing serious harm to Faulkner.
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A 40-year old woman appeared before the court charged with four offences arising out of the alleged assault, including violent disorder, reckless endangerment and burglary.
Judge Carol Anne Coolican ordered reporting restrictions in respect of both accused, meaning they cannot be identified.
Limerick District Court was told 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 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 Faulkner, the adult accused burgled and smashed up a caravan and the accused girl videoed the attack on the caravan.
Gardaí alleged the adult accused had been searching for Faulkner for 24 hours prior to the attack on her.
It was claimed that in the lead up to the assault on 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 Faulkner and a male who were travelling in a van.
Gardaí alleged the accused woman pursued the van for a number of kilometres and that she eventually rammed the van carrying Faulkner and the male on the R494 road, forcing it to stop.
Dash cam footage and CCTV footage from cars and security cameras supported their evidence.
Following the ramming, the court was told, Faulkner was seen fleeing from the van and ran 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 Faulkner.
The accused girl caught up to Faulkner and struck her at least 11 times on her head while she 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 Faulkner as “callous”.
Gardaí told the court they believe another young person at the scene recorded the assault on a mobile phone.
It is alleged that following the assault the accused girl threw the iron bar at the man who had been travelling with Faulkner.
Neither of the accused made any reply to the charges, the court heard.
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 conditions.
The judge 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 April 1st.
