Case of mentally ill teenager makes 26th appearance before court

A mentally ill teenager is to stay in custody until next month as efforts are made by the Health Service Executive to find him an appropriate hospital placement.

The teenager, now aged 18, is charged with a criminal damage offence, which occurred at his home earlier this year, when he was 17 years old and still a juvenile.

The Dublin Children’s Court had heard the 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.

His parents had him arrested in the hope that a court prosecution would lead to their son getting specialist help, the court has heard.

Some doctors have said that he needs help from the psychiatric services, while others have held that due to him having a learning problem, he should be dealt with in the disability services, the court had heard previously.

In his latest appearance before the court, defence solicitor Margaret MacEvilly told Judge Angela Ni Chonduin that the Health Service Executive (HSE) was arranging for assessments of the teenager to take place to establish what hospital was best suited to his needs.

She said that it could take three to four weeks to establish which facility would be required.

Judge Ni Chonduin adjourned the case until early November pending the HSE’s efforts.

She refused bail to the teenager and remanded him further in custody to St Patrick’s Institution saying that his parents, who wanted to take him home, were not able to provide the care he needed.

"I am concerned about the contents of the reports on him, it clearly says that if he was released by the court he would become non-compliant with his medication, there would be a deterioration of his mental state and increased risk of harm to himself and to others," she said as she adjourned the case until November.

She also granted liberty to apply to have the case re-mentioned sooner should a suitable hospital placement be found for the teenager.

It was the 26th 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 teenager was first remanded in custody to St Patrick’s Institution 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 last month.

The teenager was then returned to St Patrick’s Institution.

Earlier the court had been told that the teenager had psychiatric problems and also a learning disorder.

He has 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.