Disturbed boy to be sent to Scottish unit next week

A seriously disturbed teenage boy is to be flown to a special therapeutic unit in Scotland next week because there is no appropriate place for him in this State. The boy is being held in a State detention centre and his case has been before the High Court for more than two years.

The 14-year-old boy's case was one of 13 children's cases which were dealt with by Mr Justice Kelly yesterday. One case was held in camera because of the nature of the difficulties experienced by the child involved.

Making an order for the boy's transfer to Scotland next Tuesday, Mr Justice Kelly noted that the profundity of the child's difficulties had been outlined to the court on many occasions. There was no facility here capable of dealing with those difficulties.

He had been placed some months ago in a high-support facility which could not help him and he was then moved to a secure unit.

Now a place had been found in a purpose-built secure facility in Scotland with therapeutic services for boys with sexually aggressive behaviour. This was the child's best chance of entering into adult life with any hope for a normal life. The unit could only accept the boy on a voluntary basis and both the child and his parents consented to his going there.

The judge also heard that an extremely disturbed teenage girl remains detained in the locked ward of an adult psychiatric hospital while construction of a special unit for her, as ordered by the High Court, continues. It was hoped the unit would be operational by August 23rd but there were problems with recruitment of adequate numbers of staff.

The judge heard the girl was making good progress and her behaviour had improved. She was now permitted access to other parts of the psychiatric hospital and had not had to be sedated by injections for some time.

In another case, the judge was told a 16-year-old girl, who in the past had engaged in prostitution and drug-taking, had absconded from a high-support centre. Mr Justice Kelly said he had received a letter from the girl who said she was no longer a danger to herself and others, was staying in bed-and-breakfast accommodation being paid for by an unnamed journalist, and no longer wished to be in the unit.

Mr Felix McEnroy, for the East Coast Area Health Board, said the girl was still a child and while they had been arranging a programme of phased withdrawal from the high-support unit for her, the board wished it done in an orderly way.

Mr Cormac Corrigan SC, for the girl's parents, said they supported the board's application for her return to the unit but were concerned about the proposal for her phased removal.

The judge said he could not allow a situation where an order for the girl's detention in the high-support unit was being flouted and where the health board and girl's parents were concerned she should not be at large. He made an order for the arrest of the girl and her return to the centre. He directed the matter be brought before the court within 24 hours of her arrest.

In another case, the judge criticised "bureaucratic wrangling" between government departments and the East Coast Area Health Board about who was responsible for the child involved.

Ms Nuala Egan, for the teenage boy, said it was matter of extreme urgency because the child was high risk. The boy had been sent by the district court to a remand centre last May for a year but had absconded on May 15th. He was now at home and running wild.

They had sought the intervention of the State and the East Coast Area Health Board but no action had been taken to date.

A letter from the Department of Health and Children dated June 6th had said the matter was receiving attention and a further letter of June 9th said it was more properly a matter for the health board.

Ms Carmel Stewart, for the ECAHB, said it believed the district court order should be acted upon and this was a matter for the Department of Justice.

Mr Justice Kelly said a bureaucratic shifting of responsibility was going on while a child was at large from May 15th. Meanwhile, the child was in danger. Who would bear responsibility if the child was killed, he asked.

He would not tolerate a situation where the only response was the child being palmed off from one agency to another. He made an order directing the Garda to arrest the boy and detain him at the remand centre pending further review by the court.

The judge described another case, where a girl detained at a high-support unit from July 1998 was said to have made great progress, as "refreshingly different" from the usual pattern of such cases. The girl had completed a programme of counselling, was a model of co-operation and had sat her Junior Certificate.

She had identified a training place for herself and those involved with her care were optimistic for her. She was to continue a programme of semi-independent living skills until her discharge from the unit. He directed that she remain in health board custody to September 1st when she would return to community living as outlined in a report.

Awarding costs against the health board in the case, the judge remarked it was a great pity that there was still no method by statute of dealing with such cases other than to come to the High Court and incur costs on that scale. The State's money was being spent in this way when it could be spend on providing facilities for children.