Judge blames Central Mental Hospital for discharging mentally ill teenager

A mentally ill teenager was further remanded in custody today pending efforts by the Health Service Executive to ascertain what suitable support services could be given to his parents.

Judge Angela Ni Chonduin refused bail to the teenager at the Dublin Children’s Court yesterday saying that his parents, who wanted to take him home, were not able to provide the 24-hour care he needed without support.

She also said that she had to bear in mind their safety as well as that of the public.

It was the 25th time that the case has been before the court since the teenager’s arrest in February when he was first remanded in custody and later transferred to the Central Mental Hospital.

The judge also said today that the “blame lay at the door of the Central Mental Hospital” for discharging the 18-year-old, who has psychiatric and learning problems, when a follow-on placement was not available.

Last week, she had ordered the HSE’s director of disability services in the Northern Dublin area to attend the proceedings to outline what services could be offered to the teenager.

Counsel for the HSE, Mr Barry O’Donnell, today told the court that he objected to the order saying it was outside the jurisdiction of the Children’s Court.

He told Judge Ni Chonduin that the HSE had not been aware of the proceedings and that there were avenues in place where assessments of the teenager could be undertaken to establish what facility was best suited for him.

He also said that practitioners and hospitals had been contacted by the teenager’s lawyers but not HSE management.

He said that the court could be updated on their efforts by way of reports from the HSE.

Judge Ni Chonduin rescinded her earlier order and adjourned the case for two weeks.

Defence solicitor Ms Margaret MacEvilly told the court that the teenager’s parents wanted him to be released on bail and that they would care for him if the necessary supports were put in place.

“His parents are anxious that he would not spend any further time in St Patrick’s Institution. The difficulty is that there is no back up for the family,” she said.

Judge Ni Chonduin said: “I will put it back for two weeks to see what supports could be put in place for the parents. I would prefer to keep him at home but his family clearly cannot manage him.

“I am not going to grant bail but will give liberty to re-enter the case if the support turns up,” she said.

The teenager was first remanded in custody since in February, then aged 17, following his arrest for criminally damaging his north Dublin home by fire.

His parents had him charged in the hope that some assistance would be found for him.

In April he was transferred to the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) for psychiatric treatment which ended two weeks ago.

A doctor from the CMH told the court last week that the teen needed a “step down” placement in the Mater Hospital, in Dublin.

A doctor from the Mater Hospital later told the court that the youth needed a placement in a disability service and not a psychiatric service. He then recommended that the Daughters of Charity Hospital would be a more suitable hospital for the teenager.

Last week the court heard that this hospital held that the teenager was “too intelligent” to be placed there leading to the judge saying that the youth “has fallen between two stools.”

“Basically the psychiatric services are saying that he needs a disability service. The disability services say he needs a psychiatric service.”

Earlier the court had been told that the teenager had psychiatric problems and had the “interpersonal age equivalence” of an infant aged one year and nine months.

Other assessments have put him on the level of a child aged four.

His arrest came after he torched his family home and decapitated his nephew’s pet turtle and cut one of its legs off in front of him, the court had heard previously.

In February, he was remanded in custody to Cloverhill Prison in the hope he would get psychiatric help.

Two months later, he was transferred to the CMH for treatment where he had been until two weeks ago when he was discharged and remanded in custody to St Patrick’s Institution.

Concerns were also raised that his family would not be equipped to look after him and if he failed to take his medication he could suffer a relapse.