A 17-year-old girl wept in court yesterday as she pleaded with a judge to put her in prison to help her fight her heroin addiction. Judge Michael White was told there was no appropriate place of confinement for her in the State where her special needs could be catered for.
Ms Nuala Egan, counsel for the girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said she was currently living on the streets of Dublin looking for money to buy drugs.
Garda Sinead Magee said the teenager had been convicted of receiving stolen goods. She had appealed against the severity of a two-year prison sentence imposed in the Children's Court but now wanted to detoxify in a secure place away from the streets.
Garda Magee said the girl was intelligent and knew she needed help. She had been in and out of institutions all her life although she had no previous convictions. The girl was distraught last Saturday and had telephoned her asking that she be put in prison.
Ms Egan told the court the sentence of the District Court judge, who ordered she be detained in the adult prison in Mountjoy, raised a constitutional issue as to the propriety of her detention.
The girl was now prepared to surrender her bail and go to prison. She said the State's failure to make an appropriate placement available to the girl amounted to a failure to vindicate the constitutional rights of the child. A judicial review action had been instituted five years ago but had been adjourned generally when nowhere could be found for her.
The girl told Judge White she knew what she needed. "I have a heroin problem and I know I can get a detox in the Joy. I have tried it on my own on the streets but I can't beat it."
Judge White reduced the two-year sentence to six months and recommended that the authorities, as soon as they were satisfied she had been detoxified, attempt to arrange some provision for intensive supervision on her release. It was all the court could do in the circumstances.