Speaking at an event in Trim yesterday, to honour the local towns Tidy Towns group, President Michael D Higgins said he has invited a 14-year-old student who was attacked in Navan last month and his family to visit him at Áras an Uachtaráin.
The terrified teen was seriously assaulted by a number of other students from his own school and required hospital treatment in the middle of May.
Gardaí subsequently made a number of arrests and said they were treating the attack as a hate crime.
Meanwhile the website independent.ie is reporting that those questioned over the attack say the teen had previously burned a copy of the bible with his family strongly denying this,
A report by Ali Bracken claims, ‘Five boys who were arrested over the assault on a 14-year-old schoolboy in Navan last month have claimed to gardaí that the attack stemmed from an allegation that the youth had previously burned a Bible.
But a source close to the family of their 14-year-old victim said there was “no evidence whatsoever” he burned a Bible — and that the “false rumour” was being used as an “excuse and justification” by his attackers.
It is also understood the attack on the boy — which was posed online and then went viral three weeks ago — had followed an earlier attempted assault on the boy weeks earlier.
At this time, a rumour had been circulating that the victim had burned a Bible and that this act had been recorded and uploaded to social media however no evidence has emerged to support this.
