A 15-year-old Dublin youth has been sentenced to two years in an adult prison for robbery and other offences after a judge found that he was "unruly" and unsuitable for detention in Trinity House reformatory.
On Friday, the Minister for Education applied for a ruling that the youth was unsuitable, due to unruly behaviour, for Trinity House, a boys' detention centre operated by the Department of Education.
The youth had just completed a one-month sentence in Wheatfield
Prison which had been imposed on June 19th for seriously assaulting a
Trinity House staff member.
Defence counsel Mr Luigi Rea had submitted that the Minister did not have jurisdiction in relation to the sentence. Judge Carroll
Moran adjourned the case and remanded the youth in custody to
Mountjoy Prison over the weekend.
While in a holding cell at the Bridewell station, awaiting transfer to the prison, the youth slashed his left arm with a razor blade. He spent the weekend in a padded cell in the prison.
Ms Isobel Kennedy told the court that she was appearing for the
Director of Public Prosecutions, who wished to adopt the application made by the Minister for Education. She said that the youth had originally been sentenced on June 6th by Judge Moran to two years'
detention in Trinity House for a number of offences, including robbery, stealing cars and damaging them.
Following submissions by Ms Kennedy, Judge Moran ruled that he had jurisdiction to deal with the application which was now being brought by DPP.
Judge Moran said that he was satisfied from the evidence presented on Friday, which had now been adopted by the DPP, that the youth was
"unruly" of character, as specified under the Children's Acts, and could not be detained in Trinity House.
He varied his sentence and imposed a two-year term of imprisonment for the offences, which he said were of a "serious nature". He backdated the sentence to January, when the youth was originally remanded in custody.
Judge Moran said that the youth struck him as someone who was not a hopeless case. He agreed to review the case on October 6th next.
Mr Rea submitted that prison was not a suitable place for the youth, as he would come into contact with older and more serious criminals. His parents were also very worried that their son, who had already taken cannabis and perhaps heroin, would come into contact with drug abuse in jail. He asked for "one more chance" for his client in Trinity House.
Earlier, the assistant governor of Wheatfield Prison, Mr Pat
O'Reilly, said that the youth's behaviour in the prison during his one-month sentence had been "reasonably good". However, on one occasion he had been "placed on report" for fighting with another inmate.
Mr Tony O'Donovan, director of Trinity House, told Friday's hearing that the youth's pattern of behaviour was "cold, calculated and planned". Mr O'Donovan told Mr Rea that he personally had contacted the Department of Education to have the application made.
The youth could not be detained securely in Trinity House bearing in mind the safety of the other boys and staff.
He said that the youth had been involved in a "catalogue of events" in both Oberstown House and Trinity House, which are on the same grounds in Lusk, Co Dublin. He had threatened staff in both centres, saying that he knew where they lived.