Teen died from drugs in care unit weeks after mother admitted him

A teenage boy was found dead from drugs at a residential unit three weeks after his mother signed him into HSE care, an inquest heard. 

The 16-year-old was found dead at Focus Ireland’s Off the Streets residential unit in Dublin 7 on February 19 last year.

Dublin Coroner’s Court heard he was not a known drug user, but spent the day before taking tablets at his mother’s house nearby.

He had been living at Off the Streets for the previous three weeks. A representative for child and family agency Tusla, speaking from the body of the court, said he was accepted into their care in December 2012, having presented to emergency services. He was placed in an emergency hostel but then returned to his mother’s home. “He was continuously returning home to care for his mother because he felt that she was under threat,” he told the court.

This happened several times until his mother voluntarily signed him into the care of the HSE in February 2013. A social worker had been assigned to him since 2007. The court heard the boy wanted to be taken into care, because he could “no longer tolerate” the situation at home. He was described as “one of the nicest young people” Tusla workers engaged with.

He was placed in Off the Streets on February 4. Focus Ireland services manager Neil Forsyth said he was a “sweet boy” and they “thought he would do quite well”.

The depositions of two other Off the Streets residents were read into the record in their absence. One told gardaí they were drinking and smoking cannabis in the dead boy’s mother’s house but she was not involved.

However, the other boy told gardaí they were taking sleeping tablets in the house which they bought from the mother’s partner. He also claimed the boy’s mother took some of the tablets with them.

Garda Killian Murphy told the inquest that on taking a statement from the mother, who was not present in court, she reacted “extremely aggressively” when asked about drug use and refused to continue. The partner was also questioned and denied selling drugs to the boys.

When the deceased and his friends returned to Off the Streets, they were arguing. Relief worker Shane Browne was not present to give evidence but in his deposition read into the record, he said that when they arrived back, their “eyes were pinned like dots” and the deceased seemed “very affected”. After the deceased went to bed at around 7.30pm, he was checked on every 30 minutes, but he was asleep and workers did not enter the room. Mr Browne told gardaí he was sleeping in the next room and heard him snoring until 3am. He found him dead the following morning..

The cause of death was multi-drug toxicity with methadone, sleeping tablets and sedatives found in his system.

The jury returned a verdict of death by misadventure and recommended Off the Streets carry out regular, documented, visual checks where a minor is perceived to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs.