A 14-year-old boy, who has 52 convictions and was recently given a two-year detention order, has escaped from custody, and has been at large for nearly three weeks.
The boy was detained in January for two years in Trinity House Detention Centre for burgling a woman's home. He has a litany of convictions for burglaries, and over the past 2½ years has been detained by courts in Dublin, Co Mayo, Co Clare and Co Leitrim.
It is understood the boy, who also has many convictions for escaping from lawful custody, was on a day's outing from Trinity House in north Co Dublin on Sunday, March 13th, when he escaped from a car when it reached Drogheda.
"We believe he is now being looked after by members of his extended family. He has not returned to his parents' home in Dublin," said a Garda source.
In recent years the boy lived with his family in west Dublin. He has lived with his family in different parts of the country, mostly in the west.
In October, the boy was detained for two years for burglaries which occurred while he was at large from a detention facility.
During that break-out on August 9th last year, he burgled an elderly woman's home in Dundrum, Dublin, and was caught trespassing at the home of an elderly man in the same area.
On February 6th, 2004, he took part in the three burglaries in Terenure within an hour.
On December 11th, 2003, he was convicted at Clare District Court on four counts of escaping from lawful custody, theft, two counts of burglary, criminal damage and one charge for skipping court which resulted in a two-year detention order.
On February 21st, 2003, at Ballinrobe District Court, Co Mayo, he was convicted of 10 counts of burglary, with one count of larceny of property.
On December 12th, 2002, when he was 12, he was detained for two years at the Finglas Children's Centre by Ballinrobe District Court for five charges of escaping from lawful custody, trespassing, theft, and criminal damage to property.
On May 22nd, 2002, at Carrick-on-Shannon District Court, Co Leitrim, he was convicted of stealing €6,350, two larceny charges and 11 burglary charges.