A JUDGE has called for security to be tightened at the Dublin Children’s Court after hearing a youth felt it necessary to come to his case armed with a concealed knife.
Judge Clare Leonard called on the Garda Inspectorate to conduct a review of security at the courthouse, which is located in Dublin’s north inner city, after a youth (now aged 18) pleaded guilty yesterday to possessing a knife there on a date last June.
Garda Redmond O’Leary told Judge Leonard the teenager had been arrested at the courthouse and was later searched. “I found a kitchen knife with a four inch blade.”
Defence solicitor Sarah Molloy told the court her client, who is in custody serving a sentence for other matters, had been the victim of a knife attack at the court previously.
She said the teen had been in fear at the time and had already been advised by gardaí that “a threat had been made against his life”. Judge Leonard asked what he intended to do with the knife, at which the youth said he would have “shown it”.
The judge noted that a person had been charged over the previous incident and said the inspectorate needed to conduct a review of security at the court. “We do not even have CCTV, and the whole of Dublin is covered by CCTV.”
She said she did not condone the youth’s actions and that carrying a knife can lead to more serious offences. But she added “if a child cannot arrive in court safely without being at risk, the security aspect needs to be looked at again”. She applied the Probation Act leaving the teenager without a conviction saying “I am not sure what protection it would have given you and you are putting yourself in circumstances where you would be using it.”