A 15-year-old boy was yesterday detained for two years on his 64th conviction, for a litany of petty crimes over the last 2½ years.
The boy has been before the Dublin Children's Court since early 2002 and had been repeatedly given chances to stop offending and restart his education by taking part in training courses.
On most occasions when he was granted bail, often because of the shortage of spaces in the State's juvenile detention centres, he would again be arrested for further offences.
His offences involved over 28 gardaí from Fitzgibbon Street, Pearse Street, the Bridewell, Store Street, Mountjoy and Ronanstown stations.
He had pleaded guilty to attempted theft of motor vehicles, travelling in stolen vehicles, assault charges, criminal damage charges, larceny, theft offences as well as a litany of drunk and disorderly, breach of the peace and trespassing charges.
The north inner-city boy went out of control in his early teens and had been associating with a number of youths, which led to him also breaking the law persistently.
He refused to go to school for his mother, who had earlier told the court that she could not control him.
Some 37 of the offences were committed in 2002, when the boy was aged 13. The following year started off similarly, with the boy being arrested for skipping court, criminal damage and breach of the peace.
However, an eight-month period in 2003 followed in which he had not been charged. A placement in a training centre had been found and he pledged to turn his life around, knowing that failure would result in detention.
However, he found it difficult to stay out of trouble. By December 2003, the offending pattern began again. The placement in the training centre broke down and he started coming to Garda attention again.
The bundle of charge sheets before the court yesterday resembled a telephone book, and the boy's mother wept as she was told her son would be detained for two years in the Trinity House Detention Centre.
Judge Mary Collins, who had taken a special interest in the case, told the boy, "I had hoped that it would not come to this."