Court poor box to pay for troubled teen's accommodation
Temporary accommodation for a teenager, whose mother is dead and whose father is terminally ill, is to be funded by a court’s poor box.
The 17-year-old inner city Dublin boy is taking part in a comprehensive crime diversion programme and had been released on continuing bail by the Dublin Children’s Court until September.
Since commencing the “breaking the cycle” programme, he has shown great improvement, the court had also heard.
It involves the boy attending a residential centre in Cavan for troubled youths for five days a week.
At weekends, he returns to Dublin to stay with his sister and not at his home address where he had been under the influence of adverse peer groups.
On Sundays he spends time with a “mentor” - a volunteer civilian who is to involve the teen in healthy activities.
Garda Sergeant Barry Moore, the juvenile liaison officer at Fitzgibbon Street Station, explained to Judge Bryan Smyth today that he was making an application in relation to the Children’s Court’s poor box.
It contains funds given by offenders in lieu of fines that are then usually donated to charities.
He said the boy’s mother was dead and his father was terminally ill. The teen’s sister planned to bring their father on a break, which would leave the boy without accommodation when he returns from Cavan at weekends.
He said that the boy, who has had a turbulent couple of weeks since learning of his father’s condition, could not go to his family home as that would possibly put him at “a high risk of re-offending.”
An application for funding for interim accommodation would have to be made to the Health Service Executive (HSE).
“That would take time and we do not have it,” said Sgt Moore, who added that the teen had progressed greatly since commencing the crime diversion programme.
He asked for €700 from the court’s poor box to be used to fund a placement for the teen in a centre in Co Meath, where he can work with animals, and be under round the clock supervision.
The placement would be for two weekends, starting next week, while his sister and father are away.
The money would be reimbursed to the court if funding was later received from the HSE, he also said.
Judge Smyth said that in the circumstances he was consenting to the application to release the money for the boy’s accommodation.
Before starting the diversion plan the teen, who was not in court today, had been in the Dublin Children’s Court on a fortnightly basis over the previous year.
The charges ranged from burglary, to car thefts, failing to appear in court, criminal damage, possession of a knife, robbery and theft.
His father had his done his best to manage the boy could not control him, before he was placed on the diversion plan, the court had heard earlier.
