"Kneeling on his head"

dublin | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday November 24, 2004 21:50 by Jimmy

Anger at "heavy-handed" manner of security man's apprehension of boy.

Members of the public last night expressed outrage at the "heavy-handed" manner in which a security man at one of Dublin's leading department stores apprehended a young boy.

The incident happened at the Liffey Street entrance to Marks and Spencers about 6pm on Tuesday. One man told me he saw the security man kneeling on the boy's head while holding the boy and a companion. He also pointed out the security man who he said had been kneeling on the boy's head very close to his eye. Another member of the public phoned for an ambulance for the boy, who appeared to be in pain.

Three boys, who appeared to be aged from nine to about eleven were detained during the incident, in which about five security men were involved. When the Gardai arrived the boys were brought back into another part of the store. One Garda remained at the entrance to take statements from members of the public.

I left just after the ambulance arrived as I was already late for a prior committment, but several of the people there at that stage were vowing to wait until the boy received medical attention.