Teen sentenced to two years for 64th offence

An out of school 15-year-old was today detained for two years on his 64th conviction for a litany of petty crimes committed over the last two and a half years.

The boy has been before the Dublin Children’s Court since early 2002 and had be repeatedly given chances to stop offending and to try and restart his education by taking part in training courses.

On most occasions when he was granted bail, often because of the shortage of spaces in State juvenile detention centres, he would again be arrested for further offences.

His offences had involved over 28 gardaí from Fitzgibbon Street, Pearse Street, Bridewell, Store Street, Mountjoy and Ronanstown stations.

He had pleaded guilty to charges of attempted theft of motor vehicles, travelling in stolen vehicles, assault charges, criminal damage charges, larceny, theft offences as well as a litany of drunk and disorderly, breach of peace and trespassing charges.

The north inner city boy went out of control in his early teens and had been associating with a number of youths, which led to him also breaking the law persistently.

He refused to go to school for his mother who had earlier told the court that she could not control him.

Some 37 of the offences were committed in the year 2002 when the boy was aged 13 and 14. 2003 started off similarly with the boy getting arrested for skipping court, criminal damage and breach of the peace.

However an eight-month period from March to December 2003 followed in which the boy had not been charged at all.

A placement in a training centre had been found for him and he pledged that he would turn his life around, knowing that failure to do so would result in his detention.

However he had found it difficult to stay away from trouble. By December 2003, the offending pattern began to reassert itself; the placement in the training centre broke down and he started coming to further Garda attention.

The bundle of charge sheets before the court yesterday resembled a telephone book in thickness, and the boy’s mother wept as she was told that her son would be detained for the next two years in the Trinity House Detention Centre.

Judge Mary Collins, who had taken a special interest in the case, told the boy: "I had hoped that it would not come to this."

After hearing that the boy had been involved in more offences as recently as last month she said: "I have to make a two year detention order."

She also reminded the teenager that he had once admitted that he would be better off in custody rather than released.

Defence solicitor Ms Ciara McCann explained yesterday that the boy understood that he was facing a sentence.

But she added that the boy, while not wanting to "chance his arm", was asking for a final chance to show that his offending stopped.

The boy also said that he was interested in enrolling on a Fás course.

In an account of some of the boy’s latest misdemeanours Judge Collins was told that on May 21 last while intoxicated he had abused gardaí patrolling his neighbourhood.

He had been asked to cease his breach of the peace at which point he ran to his doorway and exposed himself to the gardaí, in the presence of passers-by, including some children.

His grandmother then told him to stop this behaviour at which he knocked her to the ground and then ran at the gardaí.

During the arrest he also tried to bite two officers.

On April 22 last he tried to steal a jumper from a shop on Dublin’s Liffey Street. He had brought the item of the clothing into a changing room where he ripped off its security tag.

He stuffed the jumper under his jacket and attempted to leave the store but was stopped by shop staff.