Court directs gardaí to find missing boy

The High Court has directed gardaí to search for and detain a troubled teenage boy, a victim of sexual and physical abuse described as a risk to himself and others, who went missing from HSE care this morning

Mr Justice George Birmingham ordered that the 14-year-old boy should be searched for by gardai and, if located, should be detained and taken to a residential secure unit pending a proposed placement in a special unit in Scotland.

The HSE sought the order on the basis of fears the boy poses a risk to himself and others. A social worker had described the boy, who left his accommodation this morning, as the “most vulnerable” child he ever worked with.

Mr Justice Birmingham granted the orders directing gardaí to detain and convey the boy to Ballydowd Special Care Unit in Co Dublin, where he is to be detained until later next week.

Moving the application, Felix McEnroy SC, for the HSE, said this was an “urgent matter” given the particular circumstances of the boy. The HSE feared the boy make take alcohol and drugs and perhaps get involved in criminal activity. The boy had engaged in such behaviour in the past and there were concerns for his health, counsel said.

Counsel said the detention orders represented the first stage of arrangements to have the boy placed in a specialist secure unit in Scotland with facilities and staff capable of catering to his particular and specialised needs.

The court heard the boy is from a difficult family background and had first come to the HSE’s attention several years ago. He had been in more than a dozen placements in both Ireland and the UK but none of those had met his needs. No facility in the State would be able to provide the boy with the security he required, counsel said.

The Scottish placement had been raised with the boy and his family who were quite positive about the proposal, counsel said.

A social worker who has been working with the boy said, despite his best efforts, the boy had left the facility he was staying at this morning.

The social worker said the boy had suffered a very significant trauma as a result of being sexually and physically abused at a young age which he was unable to deal with. The boy was also described as being gifted in certain respects.

He had difficulties at school and there had been incidents with members of staff at certain facilities where he was placed. In one incident, he had assaulted a staff member in an attempt to get away from the placement.

The boy had shown inappropriate sexualised behaviour towards females, particularly younger ones, the court was told. In another incident, he was said to have locked a female member of staff into a room for a hour, put a rope around her neck and threatened to rape her.