The Minister for Children vowed to free this brain-damaged boy... Yes, minister

THE shambles of care for children in crisis was exposed yesterday when a seriously-neglected, brain-damaged boy was put behind bars because there is no specialist unit in the country to meet his needs.

The suicidal 17-year-old is beginning his fifth week in Cloverhill Prison despite assurances by Minister for Children Brian Lenihan a week ago that a suitable place would be found for him.

The South Western Area Health Board, under whose care he falls, went on the defensive yesterday, telling the Dublin Children’s Court that the “complexity of his (the boy’s) needs presents a cocktail of circumstances verging on the unique.”