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	Garda&iacute; in Co Cork say they are aware of an alleged incident in which a group of teenagers force-fed twigs to a boy with special needs and forced him to expose himself.</p>
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	It was claimed yesterday the victim of the attack was a 14-year-old boy with autism and the incident occurred in Carrigaline.</p>
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	It has been alleged disturbing footage of the encounter was then posted to Facebook.</p>
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	Karen O&rsquo;Mahony of the Masquerade Ball, a fundraising and awareness group for families living with autism, yesterday told the Opinion Line on 96fm she had been contacted by distressed parents, including one mother of a child with special needs who learned of the incident on social media.</p>
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	&ldquo;She was very distressed. She had come across this post from a teenage group that had stuffed some twigs down [the throat of] a boy with special needs, and he exposed himself, and they videoed it and they posted it up on Facebook,&rdquo; she said.</p>
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	&ldquo;It was shocking to hear that a group of teenagers could be capable of this. It&rsquo;s very distressing.&rdquo;</p>
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	Local shopkeeper John A Collins said he knew the victim very well as he often came into his shop to buy Match Attack football cards.</p>
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	&ldquo;He is a very inoffensive young man. It&rsquo;s a horrendous thing to happen. It&rsquo;s bad enough that you could do that to anybody, but particularly bad to do it to a child not capable of defending himself,&rdquo; said the Fine Gael councillor.</p>
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	Facebook said it could not comment on individual cases but it will remove graphic images when they are shared for sadistic pleasure or to celebrate or glorify violence.</p>
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	<a href="http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/boy-14-with-special-needsforced-to-eat-twigs-321513.html">http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/boy-14-with-special-needsforced-to-eat-twigs-321513.html</a></p>
