A 14 YEAR OLD boy who helped blow up a £200,000 supermarket site two years ago has been given his final chance to avoid being sent to a remand home.
He has been at St Michael's Juvenile Offenders' Centre since November 1st, where he was sent by Judge Kieran O'Connor for assessment.
"I didn't like it there," he told Judge O'Connor on his return to Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Judge O'Connor told him: "Now you know what faces you. Unless you want me to show you the red card and send you away from yours family for a number of years you must stop getting into trouble and obey the court's instructions."
He said the defendant had "great parents" who worked hard to keep their family in their own private house. His school described him as having intelligence and ability. Everyone treated him well but he had not responded and had become involved again with an evil peer group.
"Now it's up to you and not to me. You have to grow up and stay away from these people. The choice is yours," Judge O'Connor told him.
He said he would adopt a suggestion that he place the boy under a nightly 6 p.m. curfew with him being allowed out on one night to 9 p.m. in the company of an older sibling or adult.
Judge O'Connor released him on bail to February 19th next under a bond that he is to observe the curfew, behave in school and obey the instructions of the probation service. The probation service is to monitor the curfew.
The boy pleaded guilty last March to causing criminal damage to a site in Tallaght on May 5th, 1994. He cannot be named for legal reasons.
At the March hearing, he was given a choice by Judge O'Connor - become a model boy or serve three years' imprisonment.
He was remanded on bail on conditions - including a nightly 9 p.m. home curfew - but he got into more trouble, including being found by gardai in a stolen car last August in Blessington. He was also suspended from his second level school for bad attendance.
Sgt Orla McPartlin told Mr Desmond Zaiden, prosecuting, at last March's hearing that the boy and two others caused the explosion by lighting a stolen gas cylinder.
The court has been told the ringleader in the offence, who stole the cylinder, was Shane Byrne (18) of Cushlawn Park, Tallaght. He is serving four years detention for that and other offences.
Sgt McPartlin told Judge O'Connor last March that the boy's mother insisted she did not want the case dealt with under the Juvenile Liaison Scheme. She felt if it took its course through the courts her son would better understand its seriousness. Both parents took an interest in his welfare.
Sgt McPartlin also agreed at the March hearing that the £200,000 valuation on the Tallaght site seemed high.