Fears grow for missing ‘psychotic’ teenage girl

THERE was growing concern last night for a disturbed teenage girl who has been missing for over two weeks.

The 17-year-old, who is described as psychotic, does not have her medication with her, and there are fears she may be involved in prostitution.

The High Court was told yesterday the girl went missing about three weeks ago from a Northern Area Health Board (NAHB) residential unit. She returned for two days but disappeared again. She has now been missing for two weeks.

Mr Justice Kearns listed the case for Friday, when he will consider whether to disclose the girl’s identity with a view to locating her.

Last year, the girl spent 12 weeks in Mountjoy Women’s Prison because there was no other place for her. She was later placed in an adult psychiatric hospital having been described as “psychotic”.

Lawyers for the girl went to the High Court last July seeking an emergency care order, after the teenager was seen around Dublin with her clothes covered in blood and urine.

The court heard she was extremely high risk, with a history of drug misuse and suspected involvement in prostitution. The girl had been in the voluntary care of the NAHB since July 2001.

Counsel for the board told the hearing that social workers had been working around the clock trying to find a solution to the girl’s plight, but there was no appropriate place for her.

The only appropriate secure unit in the NAHB area is the Ballydowd Special Care Unit but due to staffing problems it was not an option.

The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Finnegan, was told last October that the girl was detained under the Mental Treatment Act in a psychiatric hospital. She remained there until about six weeks ago, when she was placed in the residential unit.

She went missing on one occasion but was found and returned to the unit. Yesterday, the court was told she had not been seen for two weeks.