A HIGH Court inquiry as to whether the South Eastern Health Board is responsible for a man with a mental age of 12 who was convicted of sexual assault is to be heard on Monday.
Mr Justice Kelly gave liberty in the meantime for either party in the action to apply to have the man made a ward of court. If such an application were made the hearing would not take place.
The man was brought before a circuit criminal court, where it was claimed the health board gage an undertaking to accept responsibility for him to avoid him getting a custodial sentence. The health board, however, said it could not arrange a secure placement for him.
The man's solicitor, in an affidavit, said he was a man of limited intelligence and had a mental age of 12.
The man was given leave on November 1st to seek an injunction and a direction that the health board should take responsibility for him in accordance with representations and undertakings made by it at a circuit court sitting in June.
The solicitor's affidavit said that in November 1995 the man came before a circuit criminal court on four counts contrary to Section 2 of the Criminal Law (Rape) Amendment Act, 1980. He pleaded guilty to two counts and a nolle prosequi was entered on the other two.
The judge adjourned sentencing the man when an undertaking was given by the health board that it would accept his voluntary admission into a psychiatric hospital. The man, however, signed himself out and returned to the hospital, the next day.
The health board said in an affidavit that it had sought a residential placement for him but there were problems finding a suitable place for him due to his paedophiliac tendencies.
The board said it was not authorised to detain any person on its premises save in accordance with the Mental Treatment Act, and the man did not come within its provisions.