Damage to the back of the house

A 'sweet 16' birthday party turned into a nightmare for a Dublin family as celebrations were gate crashed by 250 teens.

Owen Osifa was hosting a party at her home in Lucan, Co Dublin on Friday evening for her teenage daughter's birthday.

A DJ was hired for the event which was only meant to involve around a dozen girls.

However an invite to the party was posted on the social networking site Facebook and news of the event went viral.

Mrs Osifa described how around 250 teenagers, most of them under the age of 18, gatecrashed her daughter's party and ransacked her house in the Foxdene estate.

A knife was put up to the throat of Mrs Osifa's husband Igosa as he tried to prevent a gang of youths from ripping a television off his wall.

A bottle was also smashed over Mr Osifa's head.

"They were trying to take the television from the wall, and when my husband tried to stop them they got a knife and threatened him," Mrs Osifa said.

"They said they'd kill him if he tried to stop them.

"He then accidentally bumped into a girl at the party and this boy hit him over the head with a glass bottle."

Shockingly, the couple's 11-year-old son, who has special needs, was repeatedly thrown against the sitting room wall as the chaos unfolded.

Knives were also used to rip up couches in the sitting room, and family pictures were ripped off the wall and smashed to pieces. The family's trampoline was also torn to shreads,

Mrs Osifa said she couldn't sleep on Friday night for fear of the large crowd returning for more mayhem.

"I was afraid they would come back and destroy the house again," she said.

"I don't know where they came from - there were hundreds of them, they were coming from everywhere. A lot of them were jumping over the back wall.

"They grabbed my son and started pushing him against the wall. It was horrible.

"It was meant to be a 16th party with a few of my daughter's friends, but then this happens. It's not good."

A neighbour described seeing around "200 young teenagers" on the road at around 8pm.

"I heard a bang and looked out the window, and there were hundreds of young people standing on the road. I couldn't believe it," the neighbour said.

Gardai told the Herald that they responded to calls and are investigating damage done to the front door of the house, which also had two windows smashed. Gardai cleared the large crowd from the home, but no arrests have been made in relation to the incident.

Online Editors