Teen held in connection with €180,000 heroin seizure

A 16-year-old boy, who was arrested in Dublin in December over a seizure of heroin worth about €180,000, has been further remanded in custody by Judge William Hamill at the Dublin Children’s Court.

The boy, who cannot be identified because he is a juvenile, had been charged with possessing heroin for sale or supply, at Neilstown Drive, in Clondalkin, in Dublin, on December 9 last.

The teenager, who has been out of school for the last two years, is also facing sentence in relation to separate offences under the Public Order Act.

Judge William Hamill was told today that the alleged amount of heroin involved in the teen’s drugs’ prosecution was worth about €180,000.

He remanded the teen in custody to St Patrick’s Institution to appear again next month for directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions on how that prosecution was to proceed.

However, he said that given the amount of drugs allegedly involved it would not be deemed a “minor offence” and would not be retained in the jurisdiction of the Children’s Court and could be sent forward on indictment to the Circuit Court.

The teen is to be sentenced next month also for his public order offences.

The judge was also told that the Health Service Executive had tried to offer the teen help by taking him into voluntary care. However, his mother refused to let him. She explained to the judge that she made that the decision because her son was against going into care.

However Judge Hamill told her: “He is a child, what is best for him is not necessarily what he wants. That is why his parents are in charge of children.”

The teen had been remanded in custody in February after he breached a number of bail conditions including a curfew order compelling him to be in his home between 8.30am and 7am and to remain sober.

Earlier the court had heard that an assessment of him had shown he had “a cognitive level at a very low age” which made him extremely vulnerable.

There were difficulties in relation to the boy’s mother and “it was hoped she might have exerted greater control,” the court had also heard.

The Probation Service had also been working with the boy and was investigating the possibility of him being fostered.