{"id":632091,"date":"2026-09-22T04:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T04:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/632091\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T04:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T04:18:10","slug":"two-teenagers-face-trial-for-alleged-murder-of-alex-coughlan-after-grindr-contact-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/632091\/","title":{"rendered":"Two teenagers face trial for alleged murder of Alex Coughlan after Grindr contact \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two teenagers have been sent forward for trial, accused of the robbery and murder of Alex Coughlan in Blanchardstown<\/a> after he was contacted and befriended through the gay dating app Grindr.<\/p>\n

Coughlan (37) suffered serious injuries after he was assaulted on Mill Road on May 17th and found unconscious.<\/p>\n

He was brought to Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown in a critical condition, where he was pronounced dead three days later.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed subsequently charged two boys, both now aged 17, with murder and robbing the deceased of his bank cards and a \u20ac300 gold ring.<\/p>\n

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

They appeared before Judge Shalom Binchy at the Dublin Children\u2019s Court<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n

Binchy considered whether the youths should face trial for all offences in the Central Criminal Court, or if the robbery charges should be dealt with in the Children\u2019s Court.<\/p>\n

Following an outline of the prosecution evidence, defence arguments and State submissions that the cases were inherently linked, the judge refused to sever the robbery charge.<\/p>\n

She held that both Youth One and Youth Two, who were aged 16 at the time of Coughlan\u2019s death, would be sent forward on two charges each to the Central Criminal Court for trial, where the matter will be listed in the next legal term. They remain in custody on remand.<\/p>\n

Accompanied by one parent each, the State served books of evidence on the pair, who faced separate hearings and did not address the court.<\/p>\n

Alex Coughlan\u2019s father, John, attended their proceedings and stepped out momentarily as video evidence from the incident was played. <\/p>\n

Outlining the allegations, Sgt Paul McMahon alleged that at 4.15pm on May 17th, following an arranged meeting at Mill Road, Coughlan was attacked by both accused.<\/p>\n

The court heard that property was stolen during the incident, including a gold ring, an AIB bank card and a Revolut card, which was subsequently used to make purchases in local shops within minutes.<\/p>\n

A forensic examination of Youth One\u2019s phone established that, the day before, he had been in contact with the deceased through the Grindr application. It is alleged that Youth One had Coughlan\u2019s phone number saved on his device under the contact name \u201cPrey two\u201d, and that they had arranged to meet at Millennium Park, adjacent to the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre, where there are a number of secluded areas.<\/p>\n

A postmortem examination established that Coughlan died from head injuries and external neck compression.<\/p>\n

McMahon alleged that just 45 minutes before the incident, Coughlan and Youth One had spoken to each other for nearly eight minutes through WhatsApp.<\/p>\n

The court heard that CCTV footage showed that the two youths met the victim at Mill Road at 4.15pm. It was alleged that Youth One beckoned his co-defendant to walk behind them, and that he and Coughlan went into a secluded area among some bushes.<\/p>\n

They emerged a few minutes later; Coughlan came out first, followed by Youth One. It was alleged that Youth One told his co-defendant that the deceased had tried to touch him, and that shortly afterwards, Coughlan was injured in a sustained attack.<\/p>\n

A civilian witness told the investigation team that he observed three people, including the victim, and that one person was shouting \u201cyou f***ing paedo\u201d at the deceased before he was chased by the two males, who caught up with them.<\/p>\n

The court heard that the victim fell to the ground and received two or three kicks in a \u201cstamping motion\u201d.<\/p>\n

A second witness claimed to have observed Youth One punching the victim to the side of the head, causing him to fall flat on to the ground.<\/p>\n

The sergeant said it was clear that until then the injured party was making every effort to escape the attack, but he was persistently blocked and prevented from leaving the area.<\/p>\n

A third witness reported to garda\u00ed that the deceased was pleading with two males standing over and shouting at him, the court heard.<\/p>\n

It was alleged that Youth Two said, \u201cGet a clip around his head\u201d, and that he filmed Coughlan being struck before turning the camera to selfie mode.<\/p>\n

The sergeant alleged that the two youths acted together for monetary gain and had made several purchases for vapes and confectionery in the locality afterwards. It was also alleged that Youth Two was wearing Coughlan\u2019s gold ring, and CCTV captured this.<\/p>\n

Youth One\u2019s solicitor said his client had a difficult background. The court heard that Youth Two had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder. Garda\u00ed did not accept that he had a lesser role.<\/p>\n

A date has yet to be scheduled for their appearance in the Central Criminal Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two teenagers have been sent forward for trial, accused of the robbery and murder of Alex Coughlan in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[613,3093,615,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-632091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-blanchardstown","tag-childrens-court","tag-dublin","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632091","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=632091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}