THE Western Health Board (WHB) has been urged to provide funding for a 15 year old youth to receive treatment at a centre for sex offenders in Britain.
After hearing that no such facility existed in the Republic, Judge John Garavan recommended the WHB should strongly consider sending the boy to a residential centre for the treatment of young sex offenders in En g land for at least two years. "It has to be done. It would be cheaper for society in the long term and for the boy himself if he was sent to this residential facility."
The teenager, who cannot be named, was before Galway District Court yesterday on a charge of exposing, himself to a female at Cois Cuain, Lower Salthill, on February 19th last.
After reading a comprehensive assessment of the youth from St Michael's Institution in Finglas Dublin Judge Garavan said it was "a necessity" to send the boy to the facility in Durham, which can cost up to £120,000 a year for patients.
Defending solicitor, Mr Benen Fahy, said the youth agreed he would like to go to the centre. "His social worker feels very, strongly that he should go and do, this course for two or three years. The centre has to make a decision, depending on whether or not the health board will be able to fund his stay."
Mr Fahy said no such facilities who harboured sexually violent desires and had been abused until he was taken into care at the age of five.
Judge Garavan remanded the teenager to St Michaels for a week, reminding him he could still "put him in a place that he would not like".