Boy (17) pleads guilty to murder of man in Kilmainham, Dublin

A teenage boy has admitted murdering a man in the Kilmainham area of Dublin last year.

The 17-year-old, who cannot be identified because he is a minor, was charged with the murder of Romanian national Claudiu Robu (39) at a laneway off Madison Road, South Circular Road, Dublin 8 on September 14th, 2020.

Dressed in a black jacket, white shirt and trousers, the boy stood and pleaded guilty when a charge of murder was put to him by the registrar at the Central Criminal Court on Wednesday.

Prior to the boy’s arraignment, defence counsel Brendan Grehan SC with Seoirse O’Dunlaing BL said the accused is a child and he is the subject matter of an interim care order. The boy’s father is deceased and his mother lives outside the jurisdiction, said Mr Grehan, adding that a solicitor from Tusla and a social worker were present in the courtroom.

Dean Kelly SC for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) with Garrett McCormack BL said the Children's Act provides for a remand in custody not longer than 28 days and he asked for the preparation of a probation service report.

Mr Kelly said the boy’s trial was fixed for April 19th, which was two days short of the expiration of that 28 day period and he asked Mr Justice Michael White to fix the sentence hearing for then.

Mr Justice White directed the preparation of a probation service report and a victim impact statement. He also directed that the boy be detained at Oberstown Children Detention Centre until April 19th, when his sentence hearing will take place.

The judge told the teenager that he would have to cooperate with the probation services and they would be in contact with him to do a full report.

As the defendant is a minor the mandatory life sentence for murder does not apply.

An inquest into the death of Mr Robu last November was told that a postmortem had revealed the dead man had suffered “multi-force trauma to the head”.

The inquest heard that Mr Robu was formally identified as a result of matching a DNA sample from his brother, Emmanuel.