A TEENAGE boy who brought a High Court action over the conditions of his detention at St Patrick’s Institution is to be moved to another part of the facility under a settlement of his proceedings.
Lawyers for the boy, aged almost 18, had sought an inquiry into the legality of his detention complaining he had been locked up for 23 hours a day and was sleeping on a mattress in a cramped cell in a wing of St Patrick’s reserved for adult detainees.
It was alleged it appeared the boy was detained in that area on grounds of his ethnicity as a Traveller.
Earlier this month, the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to a charge of burglary and was sentenced to three years’ detention, with the final 12 months suspended on terms.
When taken to St Patrick’s, he told staff processing him he was 188 so he would be entitled to cigarettes, his lawyers outlined.
Following a suggestion from staff, he agreed to stay with two other individuals in St Patrick’s whom he knew but those two, also Travellers, were being held under a protective regime. The boy was then placed under a similar regime on a wing reserved for inmates over the age of 18 and not in the area for minors. Permission to seek an inquiry under article 40 was granted yesterday morning by Mr Justice Michael Peart. Yesterday evening, following talks between lawyers, the action was settled and struck out.
It is understood, as part of the settlement, the boy will be transferred to another part of St Patrick’s.
He was subject to a 23-hour lock-up with one hour a day for recreation and, although assigned to a one-person cell, had to share that.
He slept on a dirty mattress on the ground, which rested up against the toilet, and was also unable to avail of any education facilities in St Patrick’s.