Three teenagers avoid custody due to lack of detention spaces

Three teenage boys, including one described as “a danger to himself and others”, avoided being held in custody due to a shortage of spaces in detention centres.

In each case gardaí had applied for bail to be revoked and Judge John O’Connor agreed that they should be held in custody.

However, Judge O'Connor was forced to grant bail to the teenagers, after he heard that there were no spaces available in the Oberstown/Trinity House juvenile detention facility in north Co Dublin.

One of the boys was before the court for assaulting his father, but had broken his bail conditions.

Another case involved a 16-year-old boy who had been granted bail last week after he pleaded guilty to damaging fittings and fixtures in his care home. He was brought before the court on a new charge of possessing a stolen €50 note which belonged to a care worker at his accommodation.

Defence solicitor Michelle Finan told the court the boy has an ongoing drug problem and at present he was a "danger to himself and others". Gardaí agreed with her description of the boy's current state and had asked for him to be remanded in custody.

The court heard that the boy was wreaking “havoc” at his care home.

Judge O’Connor said that although the three before the court met the criteria for being remanded in custody, there were not adequate bail supports. The judge said that “realistically we will not have a bed until Friday”.