A judge has sharply criticised the State for its "abysmal failure" to protect the rights of a homeless man who has been under care since he was three years old.
Judge Elizabeth Dunne jailed Jason Hempenstoll (22) for a violent robbery, but said the State had "worse than failed" in its duties to him. She noted that he was first incarcerated in Mountjoy Prison when he was 15.
Judge Dunne said State agency reports written about Hempenstoll over the years were "extremely depressing".
She said at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that while she had to jail him for two-and-a-half years for robbing a postgraduate student in the arts block of Trinity College, she wanted to wish him luck in the future.