14-year-old shooter found wearing bulletproof vest, court hears
The boy, aged 14, was ordered to be detained for two-and-a-half years two weeks ago at Limerick Circuit Court for firing a number of blasts from a sawn-off shotgun into a house.
The District Court was told yesterday that at around the time of that shooting last April, the boy was stopped driving a car and found to be wearing a bullet proof vest. He was also carrying a knife inside the vest.
Solicitor John Devane told the court that the boy was wearing the bulletproof vest as he was in grave danger of being shot.
Judge Tom O’Donnell said the boy should not have been driving due to his age and remarked that the wearing of a bullet proof vest was the most mysterious aspect of the case.
Mr Devane said: “He did it for his own protection. He was in grave danger of being shot or killed. He was used as a pawn by those higher up the drugs hierarchy. He has now got a proper realisation of the predicament he is in. Basically he was out of control, but he was used as a minion and a foot soldier, which was stated in the Circuit Court.”
Judge O’Donnell ordered the boy to be detained in Trinity House for six months for carrying a knife. This term will run concurrently with the two-and-a-half year’s detention ordered by the Circuit Court.
At that hearing, a senior detective, said the boy was streetwise.
When being questioned by gardaí about the gun attack the boy pointed to CCTV which showed him carrying and firing the gun.
He referred to the fact that he pulled the trigger with his left hand as he always fired his sawn-off shot gun from the left side. He said he fired at a house because he felt like it.
However, gardaí said he carried out the attack because CCTV cameras on the house had helped convict a brother of his of a crime for which he got a jail sentence.
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