Knife accused teen calls detention centre 'holiday camp'

A 16-year-old boy awaiting sentence for possessing a flick knife has described one of the State's most secure juvenile detention centres as “too much of a holiday camp.”

The teen, had been remanded in custody by the Children's Court last week to the Trinity House Detention Centre, in north Dublin. This came after he was charged over a robbery which he allegedly in threatened to throw two boys off a Luas bridge.

Today he was back in court for a separate offence for possessing a knife, in Sandymount, in south Dublin, on December 18 last, which he admitted.

The teen asked to be sentenced and, since he had turned 16, to be sent instead to St Patrick's Institution, the detention centre, for 16- to 21-year-olds, which is part of the Mountjoy Prison complex.

When asked why, the teen said “Trinity House is too much of a holiday camp.”

Judge Clare Leonard refused his request and adjourned the case for a pre-sentence probation report to be obtained. She remanded him to appear on the same date, next month, as when the robbery charges are back before the court.

As the case was adjourned the boy, while escorted from the courtroom, turned and raised both of his middle fingers and said, “I want to say one last thing, f*** the lot of you.”

The court has heard that the boy, who was accompanied to his case by his social worker, has spent nearly half his life in care. His social worker had said previous care home placements he had been given had broken down.

This she added was due to “his aggressive behaviour.” She said it was not known yet when the boy would be given another care placement and that there was a “long history.”

The boy had also been offered a placement in a care facility in Sweden but turned it down.

Last week, he was charged with robbing two boys aged 12 and 14, at Charlemont Street, in south Dublin, on January 17 last.

In an outline of the allegations, the court was told that the boy and an 18-year-old co-defendant, “allegedly approached a number of youths aged 12 to 14 and threatened them with physical violence that if they did not hand over their mobile phones they would pick them up and throw them over the Luas bridge.”