A MAN WHO walks the streets at night because the Brothers of Charity cannot provide him with sheltered accommodation has been ordered by a District Court judge to stay away from the Brown Thomas store in Galway city, two Bank of Ireland branches and the bus station, pending psychiatric assessment.
Séamus Hynes (25), from Headford, who lives at Sandyview Drive, Riverside, Galway, pleaded guilty at Galway District Court to stealing a neighbour’s purse from her bedroom and to being abusive to a Garda.
Adrian Mac Lynn, defending, said his client had achondroplasia (dwarfism) and suffered from a condition whereby he could not empathise with other people.
The court heard that Hynes had been under the care of the Brothers of Charity for years and still attended a day centre but as he grew older, his behaviour became “challenging”. He now lived alone in a flat and walked the streets of the city every night.
A Brothers of Charity social worker told the court that a recent assessment revealed that Hynes was cognitively more able than was originally thought but he no longer complied with the service and was difficult to manage. She said Hynes’s behavioural boundaries were now “askew” and she agreed with Judge Mary Fahy that he should be properly assessed by the Central Mental Hospital.
Judge Fahy said Hynes had appeared before the court on seven previous occasions. “Do we have to wait until he seriously assaults someone?”
She said it was not good enough that once Hynes finished his work in sheltered employment each day he was left to walk the streets, but the social worker told her that due to budgetary constraints, the Brothers could not offer him sheltered accommodation.
Judge Fahy remanded Hynes on bail to November 18th, directing that staff from Dundrum come to Galway to assess him.