Boy remanded as family fails to collect him from court

A 13-year-old boy facing a litany of charges at the Dublin Children’s Court was remanded in custody today because he had no family member to take him home.

The boy pleaded with the court for bail, instructing his solicitor that he had enough money on him to pay for a taxi home. However, Judge Aingeal Ni Chonduin refused his request and said the teen’s parents would be arrested if they were again absent from the proceedings next week.

The out-of-control boy’s parents, who have been present for his numerous earlier appearances, had gone to visit a sick relative and his adult sister who was supposed to come to the court did not turn up for the case.

The teenager, who has a history of substance and alcohol abuse, had been given bail on Friday July 3 last pending his sentencing in October in relation to one set of charges against him. These included five charges, two for being drunk and disorderly, another two for stealing alcoholic drinks and the last one for possessing a hammer for use in a theft.

Earlier this week, his father was present in court when the boy was remanded in custody, for his fifth time in recent months, until today. This came following his arrest in the early hours of Wednesday morning last for a breach of the peace at Henry Street, in Dublin’s city centre.

Other new charges were also brought in to court in relation to an alleged breach of the peace and a trespassing offence, on June 20 lasts at Talbot Street; and for being drunk and disorderly on June 30 last at Main Street in Blanchardstown.

Defence solicitor Ms Maura Kiely said the boy’s parents were visiting a sick relative outside of Dublin. The boy’s elder sister, who is in her twenties, had been asked by them to go to the boy’s case instead. However she was not present and could not be contacted

She said her client was seeking bail after spending the previous two nights in custody.

She said that she was instructed by the boy that “he says he has money for a taxi to go straight home” adding that she was aware that this would be inappropriate.

Judge Ni Chonduin agreed and remanded the teenager in custody to the National Remand and Assessment Unit, a juvenile detention facility in Finglas, Dublin, to appear again next week. She also requested a representative of the HSE to attend the case.

“There is no adult here and I cannot let this young man out on the streets on his own,” she said. The judge also threatened to have the parents arrested if they failed to attend their son’s next court appearance saying there was either no control over the boy or that he was “not wanted”.

“He is only 13, capable of being turned around, I have huge concerns,” the judge said as she adjourned the case.

The teenager also faces more charges on his next court date including: being intoxicated, on Sunday, May 17 last, on Dublin’s O’Connell Street, trespassing at a building in Duleek, Co. Meath, on February 11 last and a related charge for travelling as a passenger in a stolen car on the same date; being intoxicated to such an extent that he was a danger to himself and others, breach of the peace, failing to leave the vicinity after being cautioned, criminal damage of a Garda’s hat, at Dominick Street, in Dublin city-centre, on April 9 last; trespassing at Swords garda station with intent to commit an offence, on April 2 last; and theft of a bottle of wine and a packet of cigars from a shop, on the Phibsborough Road, in north Dublin on May 4 last and criminal damage to a premises at North Lotts, in the city centre, on January 26 last.

Last week when a separate bundle of charges against him were adjourned until October for sentencing another judge had told a lawyer for the HSE: “There are a significant number of proceedings, not only these ones, and most of those offences have been committed in breach of bail conditions. No intervention has proved successful.”