Boy to stay in custody while HSE find placement
A 14-year-old boy, who set fire to a room with children in it, is to stay in custody pending efforts by the Health Service Executive to find a suitable therapeutic care home placement for him.
At the Dublin Children’s Court, Judge Angela Ni Chonduin further remanded the teenager in custody to Oberstown Boys’ Centre, where he has been held since July, while efforts are being made by the HSE to find him a placement.
She had heard that the teenager, who is facing charges for assault and a breach of the peace, is being held in custody on remand in detention centre for young criminals because there was presently no suitable care home environment in which he could be placed.
The court had heard that he had set fire to a room with children in it and has been in numerous care facilities since he was aged six.
At the age of nine the health board placed him in a care home in England from which he later absconded, when he was 10-years-old, and ended up on the streets of London, drinking with vagrants.
His mother then brought him back to Ireland where he was put into another care home.
He has also suffered a mental breakdown and been placed on numerous anti-psychotic and depressant medications.
“It was like they tried every one and then they said they had made a mistake and could not find anything wrong with him,” the teen’s mother had told the court last week.
Judge Ni Chonduin yesterday refused to grant bail because his mother cannot manage him.
There are also fears for his safety because he had been previously threatened by armed men claiming to be members of the Continuity IRA.
Last week, the court had heard that four men entered the boy’s Dublin home wearing balaclavas and armed with guns and baseball bats.
Guns were pointed at his mother and young sisters and he was threatened by the men.
The teenager has been held in Oberstown Boys’ Centre since July pending efforts to have the HSE source a suitable residential and therapeutic care placement for him.
An assessment of the teenager found that he needed to be in a secure placement for at least six months; however the Ballydowd Special Care unit have a policy of shorter stabilising detention periods, the court heard.
The youngster’s mother had also told the court that earlier this year she had approached social services again looking for assistance. She was told by them to have her son arrested so that help could be found through the criminal justice system.
This had followed an incident in which he had set fire to a room with three children in it.
Mr Barry O’Donnell BL, for the HSE, told Judge Ni Chonduin that an appeal of that decision is underway and attempts are being made to explore what alternative placements are available.
The case was adjourned until a date in October while these efforts are being made.
