A 15-year-old Dublin boy is back in Mountjoy Prison after breaching the bonds under which he was released last October from a two-year sentence for robbery and other offences.
Judge Frank O'Donnell, at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, who heard almost two hours of evidence, said the boy's case presented "a pathetic picture". He was "a living nightmare" for his parents. Judge O'Donnell said he had no option but to send him back to an adult prison but he did so subject to him being brought back on February 9th next before Judge Carroll Moran who had dealt with the case originally.
The boy was sentenced in June last by Judge Moran to detention in a reformatory for robbery and other charges involving stolen cars. The sentence was to date from the previous January when he first went into custody on remand.
Judge Moran varied his order on July 21st and committed him to an adult prison for two years following a successful application by the Minister for Education that he be certified under the Children's Act 1908 as being "unruly" and unsuitable for detention in a reformatory. Evidence of various incidents involving the boy from January to June 1997 at both Trinity House and Oberstown House was given in at the July hearing. He had just completed a one-month sentence in Wheatfield Prison arising out of a serious assault on a Trinity House staff-member.
Judge Moran reviewed the case on October 6th last and suspended the balance of the sentence on strict conditions. These directed that he live at home, observe a nightly curfew, sign-on at his local Garda station, be of good behaviour and abide by probation instructions.
Judge O'Donnell heard the boy now faced new charges relating to being a passenger in stolen cars on November 24th last and again on January 26th. Stolen property was also found in the car on January 26th. He was released on bail on both occasions.
Garda John Gordon told prosecuting counsel Ms Isobel Kennedy BL the boy was so badly under the influence of drugs on the November occasion that he lost control of his bodily functions. The boy's father said his son was hospitalised in November last after almost choking on his own vomit due to drugs. He stayed away from home for various periods. Ms Mary Ellen Ring BL, for the Minister for Education, told Judge O'Donnell the boy was still considered too "unruly" to be taken back to Trinity House.
The director of Trinity House, Mr Tony O'Donovan, said they were still not willing to have him back.