Youth charged with injuring garda has case sent to Criminal Court
A judge has held that the case of a youth, who allegedly attacked and injured a Garda after he had been arrested for joyriding, is too serious to be heard in the Children’s Court.
The 17-year-old boy is charged with driving a stolen car in Adamstown, Co Dublin, and assault causing harm to a Garda, on December 7 last.
Garda Sergeant John Kinsella of Lucan station told Judge Aeneus McCarthy it was alleged that the west Dublin teenager had been arrested for driving a stolen car at which he attacked a Garda who sustained a broken tooth and a fractured bone in his hand.
Defence solicitor Ms Michelle Finan told Judge McCarthy that her client, who was accompanied to court by his father, was already serving a sentence in St Patrick’s Institution and had an alcohol problem.
“I certainly do not deem it fit to be tried summarily and I am refusing jurisdiction,” the judge said.
Judge McCarthy refused jurisdiction to keep the case in the Children’s Court and held that it should go forward to the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, which can impose lengthier sentences.
The teenager was remanded to appear again next month when he is to be served with a book of evidence and be sent forward for trial to the higher court.
