A 19-year-old man has received a three-year jail sentence for his role in the 2021 attack which left Dublin schoolgirl Alanna Quinn Idris permanently blind in one eye.
Josh Cummins, with an address at Raheen Drive in Ballyfermot, Dublin, is the second man to be sentenced to jail over the attack, after another teenager was jailed for four and a half years in March. Another young man is still before the courts, while the fourth man involved in the attack has not yet been identified.
Speaking to the media outside court today, Ms Quinn Idris said she felt “let down” by the sentence.
Describing the sentence as “disappointing,” the victim of the “life-changing” attack said she was glad Cummins received a custodial sentence.
“I appreciate what the judge has done for me,” she told reporters. However, she added: “I feel kind of let down.”
“I’m glad he got a custodial sentence at the end of the day, but it is disappointing the way the Irish justice system is more in favour of the [accused] than they are the victim,” she said, adding: “I will remember this every day for the rest of my life.”
We got some sort of closure today as Josh Cummins was sentenced to 3 years. We can’t express how grateful we are for all the support and prayers. 🙏🏾❤️ pic.twitter.com/zZUrEIKOzn
— Ahmed Idris (@djahmed_ireland) December 11, 2023
In a post shared to X, Quinn Idris’s father said the family received “some sort of closure” from the sentence, adding, “We can’t express how grateful we are for all the support and prayers.”
The attack, which a judge previously described as “savage,” happened in December 2021, with Quinn Idris being punched and hit with the saddle of an e-scooter.
Giving her victim impact statement after the first sentencing, Quinn Idris, who was 17 at the time, said that life as she knew it “came to an abrupt end” on the night of the attack, which left her with a fractured eye socket and without her sight in one eye.
“I will never be the woman I was supposed to be – she died that night. Sometimes I wish I never woke up from when I was hit with that object,” Ms Quinn Idris told the court at the time.
“I feel embarrassed, mortified and heartbroken. I cannot look in the mirror without entirely disassociating and at times I’m overcome with flashbacks,” she detailed.
The attack on Ms Quinn Idris and her male friend was carried out after the pair had been to Liffey Valley shopping centre and had got the bus home. After words were exchanged on the bus in a verbal dispute between Ms Quinn Idris’s friend, Louis O’Sullivan, Alanna and her male friend got off the bus at around 9.30pm in Ballyfermot.
While they parted ways initially without incident, two of the men had phoned another one of the perpetrators, who waited on the road for the victims.
After words were exchanged, Ms Quinn Idris was punched once on the side of her face, causing her to fall unconscious. The attack was described as “organised and retaliatory” in March, with the court hearing that the victims had been tracked from a distance and set upon.
Ms Quinn Idris and O’Sullivan were unarmed, while a number of members of the gang has a hurl, the saddle of an e-scooter and a knife during the attack which was described as “shocking, egregious and unprovoked” by Judge Pauline Codd on Monday.
Josh Cummins, aged 17-years-old at the time, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal court to charges of assault causing harm, violent disorder and of producing an article – a hurl – during the altercation.
“Often young men don’t think of the consequences of their actions,” Judge Pauline Codd, sentencing, said, adding that violent acts were frequently committed by young men “as part of a herd mentality.”
While the court accepted that he didn’t hit Alanna, he was found to be culpable by virtue of the fact that he took part in the attack with others.
Judge Codd added that “there must be a general deterrence from such acts of intense street violence,” as she handed down the sentence.
She added that “the consequences of violence, however brief, can be devastating” – describing the group of men as “cowardly.”
She said that while the attack had “much more fundamentally” destroyed the life of Ms Quinn Idris, than those who had been sent to prison.
She remarked that Mr Cummins bringing a hurl and using it “viciously” was an aggravating factor, adding that the teenager had continued fighting while Ms Quinn Idris lay unconscious.
In March, Ms Quinn Idris also expressed disappointment at the sentencing of Darragh Lyons (19) for his role in the attack, stating: “I’ve to be like this for the rest of my life and in four-and-a-half years he’ll be out and about.”
“I don’t feel these consequences are justified considering how I have to be for the rest of my life,” she said at the time.
Lyons, 19, of Weir View, Glenaulin, Chapelizod, Dublin 20, pleaded guilty to assault causing serious harm and violent disorder during the attack on Ballyfermot Road. Judge Martin Nolan said at the time that had Lyons had been older, the jail sentence would have been substantially longer.
While Quinn Idris criticised the sentence, she told the Irish Sunday Mirror that she was considering a career in modelling, previously detailing how, prior to the attack, people often told her she should model.
“I’m very self conscious and I can barely stand being in public knowing what my face looks like. It makes me very self-conscious but if and when I overcome that I would love to give modelling a go,” she told the newspaper.
“I just need to build up my confidence,” she added.
Quinn Idris returned to school in Ballyfermot four months after the attack, and went on to attend her debs with her friend Louis O’Sullivan, just months after losing sight in her eye.
Ms Quinn Idris, who missed much of the final months of her Leaving Cert, went on to succeed in the exams, with her father sharing how proud he was of his teenage daughter last September, praising her for her “sheer determination.”
“I’m blown away this morning by the sheer determination of my beautiful daughter,” he said on X. “Six months after losing her sight in an attack she aced her Leaving Cert with great results like 70-80 per cent in history and home [economics], 80-90 per cent in English and French, 90-100 per cent in maths. I am the proudest father.”
In April, the teenager appeared on The Late Late Show, where she detailed the aftermath of the attack and the road to recovery.
Special thanks to @RTELateLateShow for having Alanna on tonight’s show & making her feel so welcome 🙏🏾❤️ #LateLateShow pic.twitter.com/0g7U2jSXJc
— Ahmed Idris (@djahmed_ireland) April 7, 2023
Her appearance on the RTÉ programme led to an outpouring of support for the Dublin teenager, as she spoke of the pain inflicted by the attack, and recalled the first time she saw herself in the mirror after losing the sight in her eye.
“I just broke down entirely, it was my first time seeing the eye itself,” she said. She went on to thank the public for their support in the wake of the attack, which saw neighbours hold a vigil for Alanna and many contributions made to a GoFundMe.
“I wanted to say thank you to all those people, all the people who were with me, thank you,” she told Ryan Tubridy. Viewers showered praise on Quinn Idris for her bravery in the face of adversity – describing her as “outstanding,” “beautiful,” and “a warrior.”
Judge Codd today commended the young woman’s courage, describing Quinn Idris as an “immensely brave and positive person,” who, throughout the ordeal, had shown “maturity beyond her years.”