“My father left”: Court hears how teen starting abusing drugs at 12

By Tom Tuite

A troubled youth who started abusing drugs at the age of 12 has been given a one-year sentence for a litany of drug-fuelled offences.

During one incident while under the influence of cocktail a cannabis and tranquillisers he released the handbrake of a car causing it roll towards gardai, the Dublin Children’s Court was told.

The then 17-year-old pleaded guilty to 25 charges and still has a serious case pending in the circuit court, Judge John O’Connor was told.

The teen did not address the court but in an emotional plea for leniency he handed in a letter to the judge and it was read into the court record.

In it the the youth described how, “my father left home when when I was just a child”. He said he “started hanging around with the wrong people and started taking drugs at the age of 12 and getting into trouble with the police”.

“I now realise I don’t want this growing up”, he said, adding, “I don’t want to end up like my father”. He had two younger siblings who looked up to him, he said.

“I really don’t want to be like my father, in and out of jail his life”.

Judge O’Connor noted the youth, now aged 18, had 23 prior criminal convictions.

The court heard that during one incident the teenager was in a car and released the handbrake when gardai arrived at the scene in north Dublin. Gardai had to run to he back of the vehicle and push against it and prevent it colliding with their parked patrol car.

The car was stopped one inch before it hit the garda vehicle.

When the youth was tested he was found to have benzodiazpines as well as cannabis in his system.

Pleading for leniency, defence solicitor Eoghan O’Sullivan told the court that the teenager had a drug problem which he was trying to address in custody.

He had been an avid boxer, training three times a week, which had required discipline, however, he stopped at the age of 15 when he received his first custodial sentence.

The court has also heard that the youth was “facing more serious charges down the line”.

The teen’s prior offences included criminal damage, theft, burglary, motor theft and failing to appear in court.

He pleaded guilty to a motor theft and driving without a licence in Dublin on June 26 last year, possessing articles for use in theft and handling a stolen computer hard-drive worth €300 a Manor Kilbride in Co. Wicklow on Feb. 19, 2018 as well as a motor theft in Terenure on the same date.

His other crimes included the incident on Oct. 10, when the car rolled at gardai, which led to charges for drug-driving, trespassing and driving without insurance at Richmond Avenue in Dublin. He also stole a €600 bike from a school in Fairview, in Dublin on Feb. 16 last and he was caught driving without insurance or a licence on another date.

Mr O’Sullivan said the teen was trying to better himself but knew he was facing a sentence.

The judge said he could have given the youth up to two years in custody but noted he pleaded guilty and also his circumstances. The teen was also given a six year road ban.