THE case in which a man with a mental age of 12 has been convicted of sexual assault and is now awaiting the provision of secure accommodation as an alternative to prison, has been adjourned. The decision was made yesterday by Judge Sean O'Leary at Wexford Circuit Court, pending a legal application in the High Court in Dublin on Monday.
The application being made on behalf of the man is to require the South Eastern Health Board to provide accommodation and treatment for him in line with an undertaking given by the board during the original hearing of the sex assault case.
Mr Jeremy Maher, counsel for the convicted man, said it appeared the health board had made inquiries of the wards of court office with a view to having him made a ward of court but it was the view of the office that this would not be appropriate.
Ward of court provisions are primarily designed for people of unsound mind, he said, and there was a gap in the provisions in relation to people with mental handicap.
Counsel for the health board, Mr John O'Kelly, said the difficulty with this case was that the man was a danger to himself and others and for that reason he needed secure accommodation, and could not be at liberty to come and go.
Judge O'Leary said his concern was in relation to what should happen during the time the defendant would ordinarily be in prison. What he envisaged for him was secure accommodation, structured in such a way as to keep him away from people within that institution, especially young people, but it was not his intention that he should be permanently deprived of his liberty.
"My concern is to establish the best structure so as to give him every chance," he said.
Judge O'Leary adjourned the case to Wexford Circuit Court on November 27th after hearing that the health board and the defendant were happy with the interim arrangement, under which he is voluntarily residing at St Canice's psychiatric hospital in Kilkenny.