The decision to send a sexually traumatised teenager to Sweden for treatment has proved successful, a court has heard.
The 17-year-old boy had been sexually abused as a young child which later triggered violent behavioural problems and caused him to commit a litany of crimes. There was no suitable care facility in Ireland to help deal with his problems.
He had been convicted at the Dublin Children's Court of a number of crimes, including handling €850 worth of stolen computer games and DVDs, criminal damage of a cell in a Garda station, joyriding, criminal damage and possession of a weapon - a sharpened screwdriver.
However, instead of being detained in Ireland, he has been given an eight-month suspended sentence on condition that he goes to a specialised therapeutic community on an island in the Baltic Sea, off the Swedish coast, for treatment.
Shortly before Christmas he set off to join the Hassela Gotland community, which educates young people with social problems.
In an update on his progress in Sweden, counsel for the boy, Ms Grainne O'Neill , told Judge Mary Collins that since then, the treatment is going well. "He is a changed person now," she said. "As a result, the funding for the second phase of his stay there has been secured by the health board," Ms O'Neill said.
The boy had been sexually abused at an early age by an uncle and afterwards his best friend had committed suicide in a health board high support unit.