Teen with 72 convictions detained for 15 months
A repeat teenage offender, who has 72 criminal convictions, was today detained for 15 months for offences committed after he was released early from a juvenile detention centre.
The boy, who is 16 and from south Dublin, had been arrested for driving a stolen car and for stealing a lady’s handbag, the Children’s Court heard earlier.
In May, Judge William Early had said that the boy would be facing an automatic term in detention unless he could show that he has left crime behind.
"As far as I am concerned this is the last opportunity you will get from this court," he had said to the boy as he adjourned the case.
However, Judge Early today heard that the boy had been arrested in August for another offence in which he was in possession of a screwdriver for use in connection with a car theft. He had also skipped court since his last appearance, the court heard.
Judge Early was also told that there is also another charge pending against the teenager, which has been adjourned for an up-dated probation report.
However Judge Early refused to adjourn the case further.
He said: "It was explained to him very clearly on May 10. I said that if he did not re-offend that sentence would be suspended. He had been under no illusion whatsoever as to the implication of the offence. He has done so. Therefore the sentence will now be imposed."
On April 2 last year, the boy had been sentenced to two years detention in the Trinity House Detention Centre for a litany of offences. However, nearly nine months into the sentence, Trinity House released the boy from custody.
At his court appearance in May, the teenager had admitted offences, which took place in the early hours of March 22 last.
He had been stopped driving a stolen car on Mountainview Road, in Harold’s Cross, Dublin 6. The car had been stolen on the previous night and in it, gardaí found a handbag, which had been taken during the course of a burglary in Rathmines.
The handbag contained cheques and bank cards to the value of €50.
Prosecuting garda John O’Donnell had said the boy already had 70 previous convictions on his record. In an outline of the boy’s criminal history, Garda O’Donnell gave Judge Early a list of car theft, assaults, criminal damage, possession of implements for use in a larceny, breach of the peace and drunk and disorderly offences.
The boy, who is out of school and unemployed since his release from the detention centre, had been looking for a job following his release from detention.
He had done a training course to help him secure employment as a construction labourer.
At the hearing in May, the boy’s father said that he hoped his son would find a job. "He has paid the price for the other charges he was up on," the father had told the court.
The father had also said that it was not the boy’s fault for committing the offences as he had been released from custody early.
However Judge Early said that the offences were the boy’s fault: "As soon as he was out he committed further offences."
