Boy broke into house to rob children’s piggy-bank money

A 15-year-old caught hiding under a bed after he tried to take children’s piggy-bank money from a house has been given a two-month sentence.

The boy pleaded guilty to burglary in connection with a break-in at a south Dublin family’s home, on a date in January last year, when he was aged 13.

The Dublin Children’s Court had sought a probation report to see if he was suitable for taking part in restorative justice activities to divert him from crime.

Judge John O’Connor had said earlier that he would look favourably on the case if the boy co-operated with the Probation Service to address his offending behaviour.

However, at a later stage the defence lawyer told Judge O’Connor that a pre-sentence report on the teen was negative and that he had missed appointments with his probation officer.

The judge had already told the teenager the burglary “would have been very traumatic for the family involved. You must face up to the fact that there are victims here.”

Despite being given more chances, the teenager, who was accompanied to his hearing by his mother, continued to refuse to co-operate with the Probation Service and Judge O’Connor finalised the case by detaining him for two months.

Garda Dwayne Conlon, of Pearse St Station, had said he responded to a report of an intruder at a house. He met the owner, who had just returned to his home “and noticed the front window to his house had been forced open”.

“School bags had been emptied and items taken and placed in these bags, a piggy-bank and a jar of coins belonging to his children,” said the garda.

The homeowner “thought that the intruder was still there” and Gda Conlon found the teenager “under the master bedroom bed”.

The defence said the teenager is cared for solely by his mother, who has psychiatric problems, and his father “has never really been there for the family”. At the time, he had been associating with troublemakers, the defence had also said.