A 15-year-old youth who almost ran over a toddler and terrified pedestrians while speeding on a quad motorcycle has been detained for two years by the Dublin Children's Court.
The youth, who was aged 14 at the time, had sped in front of a Garda patrol car in Ballymun, then raced along a footpath and narrowly missed a woman with a push chair, on July 14th last year.
Garda Brian Dunne said the youth had not been wearing a helmet and seconds before the near collision on Balbutcher Lane had been racing the quad on its two side wheels along the footpath.
The quad passed close by pedestrians including a woman with a push chair, who had to jump to avoid being hit. The youth then drove down a road blocked off by concrete bollards, thus preventing gardaí from continuing the pursuit. However, he was arrested an hour later and was verbally abusive and unruly.
After a hearing of the case in January in which he was convicted of dangerous driving, the youth was granted bail with strict conditions pending a probation report.
These included a ban on him entering certain areas in Ballymun.
He was also forbidden to have contact with another youth, who was a well-known and troublesome gang leader and he was ordered to obey a nightly curfew, sign on daily at his local Garda station and go to school.
He had been warned that failure to comply with these directions would result in a term in a detention centre.
Judge Conal Gibbons heard yesterday that the youth had broken most of the conditions and had also been arrested for other motoring offences, including one in which he drove a stolen van at two gardaí.
Judge Gibbons said he had driven in a manner that was outrageous. "It was frightening to think what had happened," he said. The boy was at high risk of reoffending, and because he had broken all the bail conditions set down by the court "all bets were off".
Detaining the youth for two years in the Trinity House detention centre, Judge Gibbons said he hoped he would benefit from its educational programmes.