A FEMALE VOLUNTEER had hot tea thrown in her face as she attempted to help rough sleepers outside the GPO in Dublin on Thursday night.
The 23-year-old woman was carrying out her duties with Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH) just before midnight when the assault occurred. It forced the charity to withdraw all their outreach services in the city that night.
Gardaí say a man in his 20s from Artane was arrested later in Temple Bar in connection with the assault and will appear in court later this month.
ICHH director Anthony Flynn says the incident was the most serious they’ve dealt with since the service began 18 months ago.
Flynn described what happened as “absolutely appalling” adding that, although he is working with gardaí, he feels the individual should have been arrested at the scene.
“To have a voluntary outreach worker assaulted whilst on course of her duties is just unacceptable,” he said.
We provide a service that is second to none and in 18 months operation have not come across a situation as serious as this. I am working with An Garda Síochána this morning regarding the situation but am far from happy to find the individual was not arrested on the spot.
ICHH say that all volunteers on the north and south of Dublin City were taken off the streets following the incident on Thursday night before returning on Friday.
Flynn says the safety of their volunteers is “paramount” and that the incident was “totally unacceptable”.
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