Repeat teen offender remanded on bail pending sentence

A repeat teen offender, who violently resisted arrest when was caught driving a stolen car, has been remanded on bail pending sentence by the Dublin Children’s Court.

The 17-year-old boy, who has 18 prior convictions, pleaded guilty to resisting arrest, using a stolen car, driving without insurance and criminal damage to the door and cowling of the vehicle, at Cluain Rí, in Lucan, in Dublin, on May 9 last.

Garda Padraic Jennings, of Ronanstown station, said in evidence, that there had been reports of youths breaking into a car. “As we approached he got out of the car, I identified myself as a garda. A struggle took place, we ended up on the ground,” he said adding that the teen, who was accompanied to court by his father, then attempted to flee.

Judge Bryan Smyth adjourned the case until February for the charges to be included in a sentence hearing the teenager was already facing for other offences including a traumatising mugging on a bus which left his victim afraid to use public transport.

Earlier this month the robbery case had been adjourned until February because the Probation Service, which has been trying to divert the boy from offending, was seeking further time to “assess his commitment level over a longer time frame”.

The 17-year-old, who is taking part in a training course, had pleaded guilty previously at the Children’s Court to robbery of the man (aged 19), while travelling on the 46A Dublin Bus, on August 9 last year.

The victim was told he would be “sliced up” and was left too frightened to travel on public transport again, the court had heard.

Detective Garda William Kavanagh of Blackrock station had said earlier that the defendant boarded the bus at O’Connell Street and started a conversation with his victim.

“At Stillorgan, he pinned the injured party into the corner of the bus, then robbed him of his mobile phone and about €6 in cash.”

The victim, Det. Garda Kavanagh had said, “is very nervous, other than psychological damage there were no injuries. He said he would never travel on public transport as a result of the incident”.

The teenager had 18 previous convictions; in September 2006 he was given a two-year sentence in the Trinity House detention centre, in Lusk, Co. Dublin. However, he was released in July 2007, about a month before the bus mugging.