A 15-year-old boy appeared in court today charged with the rape and robbery of a woman in Dun Laoghaire, on Monday.

The Ballydowd Special Care Unit, currently Ireland’s only secure facility that provides therapeutic intervention for children with serious emotional and behavioural problems, has rejected an application to take a 14-year-old boy who has tried to kill himself three times.

The case of a 14-year-old boy, who has tried to kill himself three times, is to be brought to the High Court for a judicial review in an effort to compel the Health Service Executive to provide him with therapeutic help.

A €4.2 million secure unit for juvenile delinquents which has been lying idle since April was the subject of top-level talks yesterday to review its future.

A 13-year-old boy who had been suspected of committing 60% of burglaries in Rathfarnham and Tallaght, despite being on the educational level of a pupil in senior infants’ class, has been committed to a detention school for two years.

JUNIOR minister Brian Lenihan is to seek the views of all stakeholders regarding the operation of Finglas Child and Adolescent Centre in Dublin.

A CHILDREN’S detention centre in Dublin is to be downsized by more than half, following a review by the Department of Education which deemed its capacity to care for troubled young people was “lost”.

LONG-AWAITED residential care places for troubled children will be provided in the next month, Minister for Children Brian Lenihan confirmed yesterday.