Teen who attacked pregnant woman while making threats to unborn child given suspended sentence

Sonya McLean

A teenager who attacked a pregnant woman while making threats to her unborn child has been given a suspended sentence of two and half years.

Abbie Dillon- now 20 years old - was caught on CCTV delivering a number of blows to the woman’s abdomen. The court heard that during the assault threats were issued to both the victim and her unborn child.

The victim, who was 14 weeks pregnant, later had a miscarriage. While a medical report stated that it could not conclude that the attack caused the miscarriage, it would have been an aggravating factor.

Dillon, of Stonebrook, Piperstown Lane, Tallaght, Dublin 24, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm to the woman at The Square, in Tallaght on June 29th, 2023.

Judge Martin Nolan said the victim was punched to her stomach area which is relevant given that she was pregnant at the time.

“This was known to both (Dillon and her co-accused) and the motivation for the attack,” Judge Nolan said.

“There is no direct relationship to the attack and the miscarriage. The doctor does say it could have been a contributing factor,” Judge Nolan said adding that “it is very hard for the court to conclude that the assault was the cause of the miscarriage”

He said two parties attacked the victim who was pregnant and “they attacked her in a way that could have endangered her pregnancy”.

Judge Nolan accepted Dillon’s plea of guilty, cooperation and the fact she has no previous convictions.

“She was the much younger of the two involved. I can infer that she was the follower rather than the leader,” Judge Nolan said before he said he didn’t think Dillon would offend again.

“She was a child in law at the time, the overriding ambition of that act and the overriding purpose of sentencing a child is rehabilitation and change of that child’s behaviour,” the judge said.

He said it was “a pretty disgraceful act and reprehensible” and if she was an adult, the court would impose a custodial sentence.

Judge Nolan imposed a two-and-a-half-year sentence, which he suspended in full on strict conditions.

He said Dillon was “young, immature and stupid” before he added that he didn’t think a prison term was justified “principally because of her age”.

Judge Nolan said Dillon will have to live with the memory and burden of her actions on the day.

Garda Michael Curtin said the victim didn’t go for medical treatment on the day of the assault but went the following day and then reported the assault to gardaí.

He said Dillon’s co-accused’s husband was having an affair with the victim, and it was believed that he was the father of the baby.

Gda Curtin said Dillon’s Instagram account was later analysed and gardaí discovered a number of threatening messages that had been sent to the victim in the days before the assault.

Dillon was arrested and interviewed. She was charged in May 2024. She denied sending the messages to the victim.

Gda Curtin agreed with Kathleen Leader SC, defending, that her client claims that both she and the co-accused were using her Instagram account in the days before the assault, after the victim had blocked the co-accused.

Dillon accepted that she had sent the victim nasty messages 11 days before the assault.

Gda Curtin accepted that Dillon was “easily influenced” by the co-accused at the time. The co-accused is almost ten years older than her.

Ms Leader handed a probation report into court, which recommended that Dillon engage with the Probation Service to deal with her emotional regulation deficits and substance abuse.

She said her client had a difficult upbringing and was living with the co-accused, rather than in her family home, at the time of the offence.

“She was running wild at the time – she didn’t have her support of the family,” Ms Leader said before she added that Dillon was using drugs that “she is not using any more”.

“She didn’t quite think through what she was doing,” counsel said.

Ms Leader said her client is “disgusted with herself” and is very focused now on leading a pro-social life.