Acid attack burns three teenagers in Earlscourt, Waterford
Tega Agberhiere and Padraig Sullivan were among the victims in an acid attack on three teenagers carried out by four other teenagers in Earlscourt, Waterford last Thursday at around 11pm.
Tega Agberhiere's mother is from Nigeria and came to Ireland in 2002 and has three sons aged 23, 14 and Tega who is 16.
Tega's mother said her son had been football training earlier in the evening. His father brought him home and he called his friend Padraig who lives in the same estate. Padraig said he was buying food on the Dunmore Road with another two friends and the three met-up.
After they had finished their food, the boys decided to walk to the Earlscourt estate to see one of the boys home. The others were going to walk back to Ballygunner but events took an unexpected turn. When the friend who had been walked home entered his estate, he met four youths waiting for him.
Scared, he rang Tega and Padraig on the phone who decided to come back and help their friend. When they got to Earlscourt, they met the four youths, two of whom were wearing halloween masks. One carried a golf club.
One of them pushed Tega and Tega pushed him back as well. One of them then splashed acid on Tega on two other of the boys. The four youths then ran away. Arriving at the Maxwell petrol station on the Dunmore road to get water for their burns, the Gardaí were subsequently called and the victims were rushed to hospital.
This series of events was described as "a case of mistaken identity" in numerous media reports and it was explained that Tega may have been mistaken for someone else.
Tega received first-degree facial burns while Padraig suffered severe burns to his thigh while his other pal has painful wounds on his back.
They will need skin graft surgery when doctors manage to remove the acid from their skin.
Padraig's dad said “He has a big burn on his thigh and that burnt all the nerves away and it’s after blocking off the veins, so we have to wait three weeks for that to come back to life."
“It’s new for them [hospital staff] because we didn’t have the name of what acid it was and every time they washed it the acid kept activating.
“Each one of them had to get each cut washed for over 12 hours. Every time you think it’s washed the acid kept reactivating itself and started burning again.
“It’s deadly stuff, it takes 18 to 20 hours to get acid fully washed away.
Four teenagers were arrested and questioned over the attack but later released without charge.
Tega Agberhiere, played for Ireland’s U16s has had trials with Tottenham and Crystal Palace. Padraig Sullivan played Hurling for Waterford.
first clip broadcast: Morning Ireland | RTÉ Radio One | 30 Apr 2019
second clip broadcast: Déise Today | WLR FM | 30 Apr 2019
photo credit:
https://twitter.com/meeshadunne_13/status/1123177407068954625
https://twitter.com/damienwlr/status/1122987729443262464
https://www.invidio.us/channel/UCgzyycFR6PEv-B90rAiFsQg
