A FAMILY’S PAIN

THE mother of a troubled teenager who was found dead in a derelict house a week after he went missing from care has pleaded with the Minister for Children to review the way vulnerable children are cared for by the state.

An inquest into his death has heard how the body of Christopher O’Driscoll, 17, of no fixed abode, was found clutching a set of rosary beads in the front room of a filthy and vacant house on the northside of Cork city on Friday, May 8, 2009.

He had been booked into a city hotel by a social worker a week previously. The social worker told the inquest she made the decision after she ran out of accommodation options for the teenager.