A 27-YEAR-OLD MAN has pleaded guilty to attacking teenage twin sisters who were stabbed with a broken glass bottle on Dublin’s Dame Street.
Shando Alfa, a Somali national, of no fixed abode, was charged with assault causing harm to both young women, aged 18, who had been socialising in the city centre, and also to a male passer-by who attempted to assist them during the incident in the early hours of 4 April.
Bail was denied two days later, he was remanded in custody and appeared again before Judge Alan Mitchell at Cloverhill District Court today.
State solicitor Fergal Mawe informed Judge Mitchell that the Director of Public Prosecutions consented to Alfa being sent forward for sentencing to the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Alfa confirmed he understood the charges and signed his guilty pleas in triplicate. Judge Mitchell granted the order transferring his case to the higher court, where it will be listed on a date in June.
Following a request by defence solicitor Kate McGhee, Judge Mitchell extended legal aid to brief counsel and cover a psychological report. He also directed gardaí to furnish the defence with copies of interview videos to assist in preparing a mitigation plea.
There was no application for bail, and Alfa was remanded in custody pending sentencing.
At his original bail hearing, Garda Colm Carroll described the incident as a “violent, vicious and unprovoked attack” which led to serious injuries.
Alfa “made no comment” after gardaí charged him at Pearse Street station.
The offences are under section 3 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act; on conviction, it is punishable by a maximum 10-year sentence.
Garda Carroll said that shortly before 2.30am, the sisters attempted to cross Dame Street. There, they were met by a male, subsequently identified as Alfa, whom they did not know.
The court heard that Alfa began “pestering” them and made “unwanted advances” which were rejected.
Garda Carroll said the twins made their way to a bus stop while the accused continued to make advances.
The officer added, “Both females repeatedly requested this male to leave them alone. He refused to.”
A passer-by, a man unknown to the sisters, intervened and asked Alfa to leave them alone.
Garda Carroll said this culminated in the accused launching an unprovoked and vicious assault while brandishing the head of a broken green glass bottle.
Alfa was said to have struck the man with the piece of the bottle and stabbed him in the head.
One of the twins then tried to intervene, and both she and her sister were subjected to violence.
The court heard one of the young women was grabbed by her head, pulled down and punched in the face, and suffered a deep laceration to her hand, believed to be inflicted by a sharply pointed article brandished by Alfa.
Her sister was struck on the head, resulting in a cut, which was also thought to be caused by the object in his hand. The court heard that the accused fled the scene.
The sisters were taken by ambulance to Tallaght University Hospital. One had two deep lacerations to the top of her head that needed staples, and she suffered bruising under her eye.
The second also had a deep cut to her hand that needed stitches, and she will need surgery.
Green glass was recovered from the twins’ injuries as well, the bail hearing was also told.
The injured passerby required stitches at Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown, where medical staff removed glass from his wound.
The garda had stated that there was excellent-quality CCTV footage before, during, and after the incident. Garda Carroll also said that there was a camera phone recording with audio of the young women “pleading” with the man to leave them alone before the assault.
The garda maintained that Alfa was in the video evidence holding the broken bottle and swinging in a stabbing motion. He also said the accused made no effort to conceal his identity.
The court heard that on arrest, he still had the head of the broken green glass bottle.
During his interview, he made no comment on the questions put to him.
The proceedings had heard that the two young women have given statements and vivid descriptions of the assault which followed prolonged pestering and advances.
Alfa first became known to be in the country in February 2025; however, there was no record of his port of entry. He was unemployed, later lived in Wicklow, but he had no family in or ties to the country.
The garda voiced flight risk fears.
He also said he believed the accused showed a clear propensity to violence, and that he had grave concerns if he were released on bail.