Efforts to provide care for troubled teen who assaulted father

A troubled boy, awaiting sentencing for attacking his father, has been remanded in custody pending efforts by child welfare services to provide him with suitable accommodation and care.

The boy, 15, is on remand in a juvenile detention centre after his bail was revoked last month by the Dublin Children’s Court. Judge John O’Connor further remanded him in custody to appear again next week.

Earlier he said the teenager had been engaging “in levels of violence way beyond his years”. The court was also told the boy had engaged in self-harming incidents in a juvenile detention centre.

Judge O’Connor has told the Child and Family Agency (CFA) that the boy “has significant issues that did not just develop overnight”.

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The CFA are attempting to place him in a secure care facility, but the teen’s mother has accused child welfare services of not providing help when it was first needed.

His parents could not cope with his problems and he had to reside in emergency hostel accommodation before his bail was rescinded.

The boy has pleaded guilty to assaulting his father in the family home.

Judge O’Connor, who was furnished with psychiatric reports, said early intervention did not happen and the boy’s parents had been “driven demented”. “If there were proper care support, he would not be in custody,” Judge O’Connor has said.

He noted the CFA found the teenager was not co-operative, but the judge said that was one of the reasons the boy was before the court. The teenager was also involved in some levels of violence, “way beyond his years, and that is a very significant issue”, the judge said.

Despite being violent, the boy was also vulnerable, and had lied about his age to get a bed in an adult hostel.

The court could not be expected to keep him in custody while matters were being sorted out by the CFA, the judge has warned.

Defence solicitor Gareth Noble has said the boy’s parents are not in a position to safely maintain their son.

The youth, who had been relying on emergency hostel accommodation, has pleaded guilty at the Dublin Children’s Court to attacking his father and damaging a TV following an incident at the family home last August.

Last month, during a court hearing, he threw a shoe at a garda who was giving evidence against him. There were also new charges for criminal damage to a taxi and possessing a stolen bicycle. Mr Noble said the teenager’s latest charges have arisen in the context of him being left reliant on hostel accommodation.

The court heard in February he threatened a social worker, while armed with a steak-knife and chased him from the house. This left social workers scared to be involved with him.

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