THE 15 year old boy who absconded from custody less than a week after being convicted of attempted rape was re arrested yesterday evening near his home in Co Westmeath. He was found by staff from Trinity House and returned to the detention centre for juvenile offenders at 10 p.m.
Earlier yesterday, the Minister for Education, Ms Breathnach, ordered a report on the circumstances in which the youth escaped from custody on Sunday while on a "mobility trip" to the cinema with two other boys, accompanied by one member of staff from Trinity House, which is in Lusk.
Ms Breathnach said she was "very concerned" about the escape and specifically wants a review of "mobility trips" whereby inmates are brought on trips as a reward for good behaviour. "It was one of those that gave this young person an opportunity to escape from custody. It shouldn't have happened," she said.
The board of management is holding an emergency meeting tomorrow at which it will discuss its policy on trips outside the secure centre, which is run by the Department of Education.
The boy was convicted in the Central Criminal Court last Wednesday of the attempted rape of a mother of three. The court heard the victim had been gang raped in a Co Westmeath field. The boy was remanded in custody for sentence in September. He was already serving a two year sentence in Trinity House following a conviction in April, 1995, on a larceny charge.
The Progressive Democrats spokeswoman on justice, Ms Liz O'Donnell, said it was "reckless beyond belief that a young man who had been found guilty of such a heinous crime should be brought to the pictures with one person supervising three offenders".
The State had failed to secure the youth's detention, she said, and "failed the victim".