The boy who suffered an alleged “serious assault” in the Roscommon town of Ballaghadereen in the early hours of Friday morning is 15-years old, local media reports have said.
“Gardai are carrying out an investigation into the serious assault of a teenage boy, understood to be 15 years old, at 12.10 on Friday morning in Main Street,” Shannonside radio reported.
Around 430 people attended a protest in the town on Sunday evening to send support to the victim of the alleged assault and his family, with speakers calling for more gardaí to be urgently sent to the town.
No further information regarding the assault has been confirmed at this time.
In relation to policing, local representatives have said that while the population of the town has increased significantly in recent times, garda presence seems to have decreased, and the station is not continuously manned.
In 2022, the Roscommon Leader Partnership wrote to the Joint Policing Committee with details of a rise in anti-social behaviour, incidents of indecent exposure as well as volatile situations at local homes, with a local Councillor saying more Garda resources were needed in the town to tackle an increase in crime due to an influx of people living in the area.