Teen with 50 convictions gets six months for handbag snatch

A 17-year-old boy with 50 criminal convictions who became addicted to "tablets he got on the streets" was today sentenced to six months detention for a handbag snatch.

The repeat teen offender pleaded guilty at the Children’s Court to the theft, which occurred on September 13 last, at Dublin’s Talbot Street.

Judge Bryan Smyth was told that a woman had been making her way into a shop when the boy “grabbed her purse containing €117 and made off”.

He heard that the teenage boy already had 49 previous convictions which included criminal damage, theft and motor theft. On September 22 last the boy had been given an eight-month sentence in St Patrick’s Institution.

Defence solicitor Ms Sarah Molloy pleaded with the court not to add to the teenager’s existing custodial sentence.

In mitigation she said the boy, who remained silent during the hearing, was using his time in custody positively. He has been attending school there daily, making use of the detention centre’s gym and it was hoped he would attend drug abuse counselling.

“He had been abusing tablets he got on the streets,” Ms Molloy said.

The teenager’s mother, who was unable to attend the case due to ill health, had become worried about him and planned that on his release from detention he would move out of Dublin to live and work with relatives

The mother also feared that her boy could begin using heroin in St Patrick’s Institution which previously happened to another son.

Ms Molloy asked the judge to consider a suspended sentence “that would be hanging over him when he gets out to ensure that he does not go down this way again”.

Judge Smyth imposed a six month sentence but suspended it on condition that the teenager, whose aunt was present for the case, did not re-offend for the next 12 months.

In an earlier case the court had heard the teenager suffered from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. He completed the Junior Certificate in custody and afterwards was given a place in a residential unit for troubled youths, in Co Cavan. However the placement broke down.

In December 2005, then aged 14, he received his first detention sentence.

In July last the was given a sentence after pleading guilty to theft of a motorbike, at Bella Street, Dublin, on March 27; possessing a knife as a weapon, attempted car theft, and criminal damage, at Buckingham Street, Dublin, on April 16 last. He also admitted interfering with a vehicle on Dublin’s Talbot Street, on May 13 last and criminal damage to three items of clothing in a shop in Mary’s Street, on April 29 last.

In March last year the then 15-year-old boy, who was said to have become “fixated” with motoring offences and after he spiralled out of control through cocaine abuse, was detained for four months. He also received an eight-month sentence in August last year for ramming a Garda car.