Boy whose parents fear him remanded after garda head-butt

A 16-year-old boy, whose parents are too afraid to let him come home, has been further remanded in custody by the Dublin Children’s Court pending sentence for head-butting a garda.

The teenager had to be restrained after he began lashing out at gardaí in the courtroom where, minutes before, he refused offers of assistance, including a foster home, from the Health Service Executive (HSE) whose officials he branded "rats".

The boy has pleaded guilty to attacking a garda at his west Dublin home, on a date last February. He also admitted a breach of the peace, at a hospital, on June 18 last and being drink and disorderly and breach of the peace at a community centre, on February 15 last.

He had been remanded in custody last month for breaking bail conditions and after the court heard that if released he would have to use emergency hostel accommodation for homeless youths.

Last week he refused to accept a foster home placement offered by the HSE. In court, he had repeatedly said: “I’m not going to any foster home or anything like that or anything by the HSE at all.”

Today, Judge Elizabeth MacGrath heard that the teen had not changed his mind. Defence solicitor Mr John Quinn said the boy was “adamant he will not consider a foster placement and is anxious for the matter to be finalised”.

In evidence, garda Barry O’Shea said the teenager, who had been drunk, was arrested “for his own safety”, and had been brought home to be released into the care of his father.

“At which time he caused a breach of the peace and was placed back into the patrol car at which stage he head-butted me,” said garda O’Shea.

Judge MacGrath said it appeared from reports furnished to the court that the teenager, who has no prior convictions, needed assistance and measures could be put in place to help him. “Detention is not necessarily the best way of dealing with this matter,” she said.

However, the boy, slumped forward on the defendants’ bench, replied: “I don’t want to, I won’t work with them social workers.”

When asked why he said: "I don’t like them, never did, I don’t want any social worker.”

He agreed that he had been in foster care in the past and that he did not have anything against the family with whom he had lived. However he said that he would “beat the head” of anyone who tried to place him in a foster home again. “I’d rather Pat’s (St Patrick’s Institution detention centre), I am not going to any home.”

“I don’t care. I want to be sentenced now,” he also said and branded social services “rats.”

When further questioned by the judge as to why he felt this way he repeatedly said: “I don’t want to.”

“I want to be sentenced, I don’t want to be involved with the HSE. Why are they still here? F*** off, rats,” he said. He then repeated the word “rat” two more times.

Judge MacGrath thanked the teen, whose mother and father were present, for engaging with her in the case. She further remanded him in custody to appear again next week saying she would make her decision then.

As he was escorted from the courtroom he began to struggle with gardaí and had to be restrained as he began lashing out with his arms.

On July 13 last, his bail had been revoked after the boy’s father said: “I fear for my wife and kids.”

The teen had earlier been granted bail on condition he cooperated with HSE social workers who had been trying to assist him with his problems. However, he later broke the terms of his bail.

A social worker had said that the boy had been in care for a period and returned home to his parents a year ago. Late last year the HSE “closed its file on the case. He was doing well.”

However, he went on to say the situation changed for the worse with reports of the boy’s mother being attacked and the teen getting into trouble with the law.

He had said that following a court order he had made arrangements to carry out a welfare assessment but the teenager declined to meet him on one occasion.

On the second occasion the social worker felt that it would not be safe to meet the boy in his home “because of extreme threats to me that I have no doubt he would carry out”.

He had also said that he had been attacked by the teenager in the past and one of his colleagues had been “seriously assaulted” by the teen.

He had also outlined to the court that a number of services had been put in place including alcohol addiction counselling, employment and training advice and assistance from a youth worker.

Psychological and psychiatric treatment was also to be made available to the boy, the court heard.

The social worker had also said he had learned from the teen’s parents that a court-imposed curfew condition had been broken.

“And there is an alleged serious assault on his mother, which is not the first serious assault on his mother,” the social worker told the court.

He had also said that when the boy was alone with his mother “it all comes back on her”.