A TEENAGER who jumped into a van and drove it while two workers were in the back has been placed in custody for a week by Tallaght Court. Making his order, Judge James McDonnell said: “The public must be protected.”
The court heard that on January 19th, two workers had been in the back of their van at roadworks on the Leopardstown Road when the 17-year-old jumped into the van and drove it down the road. By stepping into the van, the teenager breached the conditions of a 12-month suspended sentence he had received from Tallaght Court six days earlier.
The teenager, with an address in Tallaght, pleaded guilty to driving a stolen car at Leopardstown Road, on the above date, failing to appear at District Court 55 on January 19th and breaching the peace at Tymonville Road in Tallaght on February 23rd.
The court heard the teenager had three previous convictions. At Tallaght Court on January 13th, he had received a 12-month sentence suspended for two years for assault causing harm and a four-month suspended sentence for assault.
The judge said: “So he received suspended sentences from this court and, six days later, he goes out and commits this offence. I am obliged to consider reactivating the suspended sentence. He goes into custody today. The public has to be protected. The experiences of the workers in the van must have been shocking.”
He placed the teenager in custody and remanded him for a week for pre-sentence, psychiatric and psychological reports, and to consider reactivation of the suspended sentence.