Four years in jail for Oberstown damage

Detainee caused €17k damage, hit director in head with metal bar

A teenager who hit the director of a children’s detention centre on the head with a metal bar and smashed up the centre has been jailed for four years. Michael Ward, aged 19, of Gleann Riada, Strokestown Rd, Co Longford, pleaded guilty to criminal damage, assault causing harm, and assault while attempting to commit theft at Oberstown Children’s Detention Campus, Lusk, Co Dublin, on May 29, 2017.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard Ward is currently serving a four-year sentence, with the final 12 months suspended, for criminal damage offences also committed at Oberstown. Garda Vincent Tierney told Pieter Le Vert, prosecuting, that on the evening in question, Ward asked a staff member at Oberstown if he could use the bathroom.