Girl stripped and put in cell, father claims

A father claimed in court yesterday that his teenage daughter was stripped naked and put into a padded cell with nothing but …

A father claimed in court yesterday that his teenage daughter was stripped naked and put into a padded cell with nothing but a blanket to cover her when she was held in Mountjoy Prison.

His claim emerged during his 17-year-old daughter's bail hearing at the Dublin Children's Court yesterday. The girl had already been given bail last month but the court heard yesterday that there was a Garda application to have it revoked.

Judge Thomas Fitzpatrick was told that there was a Garda objection to releasing her on continued bail because she had broken a number of the conditions set down by the court when she was last released.

The court heard that the girl's mother was willing to stand bail for the girl.

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However, Judge Fitzpatrick was told the girl had not been residing with her mother as she had been ordered previously. After noting the evidence of the breaches of bail, Judge Fitzpatrick ordered that the girl be remanded in custody to Mountjoy Prison.

The girl's father then stood up and briefly addressed the court to complain about his daughter's treatment when she was last sent there.

"While being in Mountjoy she has been stripped naked. A blanket was thrown around her and she was put into a padded cell," he claimed.

"She has not been looked after by the State," he said.

Judge Fitzpatrick advised the man that he should make a complaint to the Department of Justice saying that he did not have control over the Prison Service.

The girl, who is facing a number of charges, was remanded in custody until a date in September.