Trinity House turned away stolen car youth

The passenger travelling in the stolen car which killed Garda Anthony Tighe and Garda Michael Padden was turned away from Trinity House detention centre, Lusk, because of lack of space despite a number of beds being empty at the time, The Irish Times has established.

Gerard Eglington (17) was turned away in the months before the two gardaí were killed in April 2002, and should have been there at the time of the fatal crash.

However, Trinity House operates a system of reserving beds for juveniles who have been released on licence. It means beds are kept open for long periods in order that those released early can be recommitted at short notice if they re-offend.

The system has been used to keep occupancy rates low because staff have had difficulties in the past when the centre has been filled to near capacity.

Eglington was given four years' detention last January by Judge Katherine Delahunt for being a passenger in the car. This is to commence at St Patrick's Institution on March 15th, 2004, when his current detention at Trinity House for another matter will be complete.

The Department of Education confirmed beds are sometimes reserved for those released on licence. A spokesman said the practice afforded the Department a "safety net" for juveniles who broke the law on release. While "there may have been a problem in the past" with juveniles being turned away because beds had been reserved, he was not aware it was currently an issue.

One informed source said at the time Eglington was turned away at least six beds were empty because they had been reserved for released juveniles. The source said one bed is currently reserved for a juvenile who has not been in Trinity House for almost six months.

The same source said a new three-person step-down facility was seldom occupied by more than one juvenile. And another new €5 million centre, which has a capacity of six, has been empty since it opened in the summer.

The Department said the new step-down facility has been opened since January of last year. The spokesman said while it was occupied by just one juvenile at first, occupancy rates have been as high as 100 per cent.

He said that although the new six-person €5 million centre has been complete since the summer it has been empty since because it has not been opened.

The centre was built to comply with a section of the Children's Act 2001, which makes provision for the care of juvenile criminals with special needs. That section of the legislation has not yet come into effect.

The Department confirmed around 10 juveniles have escaped while being escorted to and from Trinity House in the past year.