The attacker in a passing car grabbed the 13-year-old out training before holding onto him for a period from the moving vehicle and flinging him into the ditch.
Exactly 12 months ago to the day we brought you the horrific story of an attack on youth rider Conor McKenna.
The 13-year-old Emyvale CC rider was out training near his home in Co Monaghan when an attacker in a passing car leaned out and grabbed him, before holding onto him for a number of seconds and then pushing him into the ditch.
A Garda investigation identified the man and today he was brought before the courts and jailed for 10 months.
Judge Denis McLoughlin at Monaghan District Court was told Thomas McCarron (22) of Killydreen, Emyvale, Co Monaghan, had shown no real remorse even though an apology was read out in court.
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Judge McLoughlin not only sentenced McCarron to 10 months but also banned him from driving for five years.
And he ordered McCarron to make a payment of €1,000 to Conor, who was training for the Ulster Youth Championships when attacked last June 23rd.
Conor’s father Richard McKenna told the court his son was very badly injured and was taken to Monaghan General Hospital before being transferred to Cavan General Hospital.
McCarron pleaded guilty to a charge of assaulting and causing harm to Conor.
The boy suffered road rash to his hands and elbows and was for a short period knocked unconscious.
Young Conor bounced back into the middle of the road still clipped into the pedals as passing motorists went to his aid and forced oncoming traffic to stop.
One of Conor’s neighbours witnessed the attack on the Emyvale to Monaghan road near Emyvale and chased the car carrying the attacker, but was eventually out-run by the vehicle and lost it.
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But he vehicle and McCarron were later tracked down by gardai.
Conor’s father at the time told the Joe Finnegan Show on local radio station Northern Sound FM exactly what had happened to his son.
“The vehicle pulled up alongside him and the passenger in the rear, on the passenger side of the car, leaned out the window and grabbed a hold of him,” he said of the attack on the schoolboy.
“He held on to him for a few seconds and pulled him in towards the car. Then he fired him towards the hedge and they went on about their business.
“When Conor went into the hedge he consequently flipped over and landed out in the middle of the road; he was at speed himself. And he was clipped into the pedals so where the bike went, he went.
“A young lad from Louth pulled up in a small transit van and stopped the lorry and another car on the road,” Richard McKenna said of the aftermath of the attack.
“Thank God he did because I can’t imagine what could have happened to Conor if he hadn’t been there.
"There’s absolute no doubt in my mind he wouldn’t be here today if that lad hadn’t stopped the lorry.
“Conor has been out cycling since he was 10 and loves it. He goes out every day for 20 or 22 miles at a time and we always tell him to make sure he is careful and to obey the law of the road.
“We never dreamt that someone would do something like that to a child. It was a mindless, random act of absolute madness, and it could have been absolutely anybody. Would they have done that to a pensioner?”
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