A TEENAGER who sold a supply of heroin worth €100 to an undercover garda during a sting operation has been spared a custodial sentence.
The 17-year-old boy had pleaded guilty at the Children’s Court to possessing heroin with intent to supply, in west Dublin, on the afternoon of July 1st, last year.
He also admitted to having a supply of cannabis worth €20, for his own use on the following day.
Yesterday, Judge Elizabeth MacGrath noted that a presentencing report on the teenager had recommended releasing him under a conditional probation bond which also includes a mentoring order.
She agreed to follow the recommendations and made the order for a period of one year. A mentor is to be appointed to the teenager by the Probation Service to engage him in pro-social activities and divert him from criminal behaviour.
Judge MacGrath warned the teenage boy, who was accompanied by a relative who is his current legal guardian, that he must follow the conditions of the court order.
Defence solicitor Maura Kiely said the teenager understood the terms of the order and was willing to comply with them.
She had said earlier that the Probation Service felt that the boy, who had no prior convictions, was “at a low risk of re-offending for drugs offences”.
Outlining the evidence, Garda Josephine Dowling said that the teenage defendant “was identified selling diamorphine [heroin] to a garda from the National Drugs Unit who was working undercover”.
The court had heard that his mother had been in her mid-teens when she gave birth to him and “unfortunately has a drug problem”.
In mitigation pleas, the court had been told it was hoped he would benefit from intervention from the Probation Service.