{"id":470254,"date":"2026-05-27T22:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T22:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/470254\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T22:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T22:24:10","slug":"judge-warns-social-media-users-identifying-teens-charged-over-alex-coughlan-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/470254\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge warns social media users identifying teens charged over Alex Coughlan attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

A judge has issued a warning to social media users about identifying two teenage boys charged with attacking Alex Coughlan, who died three days after being severely injured in Blanchardstown.<\/p>\n

The Director of Public Prosecutions is also to be asked to demand that social media platforms take down posts that breach the rights of the 16-year-old boys, as juveniles, to anonymity, Judge Susan Fay heard on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Coughlan, who was 37, suffered serious injuries after he was assaulted on Mill Road at around 4.20 pm on May 17th and was found unconscious.<\/p>\n

He was brought to the hospital in a critical condition, where he was pronounced dead on May 20th.<\/p>\n

Shortly after he passed away, garda\u00ed charged two boys in connection with the incident.<\/p>\n

The pair, both aged 16, are accused of causing serious harm to Mr Coughlan at Mill Road, under section 4 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act.<\/p>\n

They were also charged with robbing him of his bank cards and a \u20ac300 gold ring.<\/p>\n

Neither youth has indicated a plea.<\/p>\n

Both were refused bail last week and remanded in custody to the Oberstown Children Detention Campus.<\/p>\n

The boys, who cannot be named because they are juveniles, faced their second hearing when they appeared at the Dublin Children’s Court on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Their cases were heard separately, with each teen being accompanied to the proceedings by a solicitor and a parent.<\/p>\n

Judge Fay noted from Garda Adam Kiernan that directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) have yet to be received.<\/p>\n

Video link<\/p>\n

The boys consented, through their solicitors, to being further remanded in continuing custody to appear again on June 24th via video link.<\/p>\n

Solicitor Brian Keenan, acting for one of them, submitted that it was clear the case was realistically heading in one direction, the Central Criminal Court.<\/p>\n

He said that when a decision is made as to the actual charge the boy will face, the matter will come under the juvenile protocol.<\/p>\n

He was referring to a recently introduced procedure to expedite specific serious cases involving young people under 18.<\/p>\n

The protocol sets a strict 12-month time limit to complete the trial process from the date of charging.<\/p>\n

His client did not address the court.<\/p>\n

Keenan said the State needed to get the DPP’s direction as soon as possible on the actual substantive charge.<\/p>\n

Garda Adam Kiernan said the file was being compiled for the director. He added that presently neither a murder nor a manslaughter charge was before the court, and the protocol had not come into effect in this case yet.<\/p>\n

Keenan raised a second issue, saying “there have been significant concerns in relation to my client’s identity being published online”.<\/p>\n

He clarified that this related to members of the public on social media rather than traditional news media.<\/p>\n

He also said a picture had been posted “across a number of social media platforms”, and that garda\u00ed were aware of this..<\/p>\n

The solicitor pointed out possible breaches of sections 252 and 51 of the Children Act, which can result in penalties and criminal sanctions.<\/p>\n

He asked the judge to deliver a warning about breaking the Act’s anonymity provisions.<\/p>\n

He added that separately, he will ask the DPP to serve the appropriate orders on social media companies calling for the removal of such material.<\/p>\n

Keenan said he believed garda\u00ed were supporting the application.<\/p>\n

Judge Fay stated that the young person before the court was a child, had a right not to be identified, and was entitled to the presumption of innocence.<\/p>\n

She also warned that previously, when children before the courts were identified publicly, it was taken very seriously by garda\u00ed and the courts.<\/p>\n

Solicitor Mark O’Sullivan raised the same issues for the co-defendant, and the judge repeated the warning.<\/p>\n

X-Ray<\/p>\n

She also agreed to a defence request that the teenager could receive urgent medical attention at an A&E for a hand injury. That teen spoke only to say he had seen a doctor in custody who had told him he needed an X-Ray.<\/p>\n

At last week’s bail hearing, Garda Sergeant Emma Ryan gave evidence that Mr Coughlan screamed for help on his knees, crying and pleading during the incident.<\/p>\n

Sergeant Ryan alleged that part of the “completely unprovoked” attack was filmed on a phone, which has been seized.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Radio<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

Radio executive was arrested after ‘controlled delivery’ of \u20ac111,000 cannabis from US<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Coughlan, who lived in Blanchardstown and worked for an insurance firm, had worked in sales for companies Sky and PayPal.<\/p>\n

He attended Castleknock Community College. On Monday, around 500 people gathered for a vigil in his memory at the place where he was injured.<\/p>\n

Coughlan will be reposing at his mother, Brigid’s, house on Friday evening before removal on Saturday morning to Staffords Funeral Home in Ballyfermot for a celebration of his life at 10.45 am, followed by a private cremation at Glasnevin Crematorium.<\/p>\n

A fundraiser set up to help his family with funeral expenses received just over \u20ac20,000 within days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A judge has issued a warning to social media users about identifying two teenage boys charged with attacking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-470254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}