A suicidal 14-year-old boy, who tried to kill himself in Garda custody at the weekend, has been further remanded in custody by Judge Bryan Smyth at the Dublin Children's Court.
Meanwhile, the troubled boy's case is to be brought to the High Court today where urgent judicial review proceedings are to be initiated to compel the Health Service Executive (HSE) to provide him with appropriate care and accommodation. On Tuesday the judge had said that he was holding the boy, who suffers from depression, in custody, in a detention centre, on welfare grounds but admitted that these were not proper reasons for refusing bail.
However, he said he was doing so because the accommodation proposals offered to the boy by the HSE "were not suitable".
The teenager had then said in court he would kill himself if kept in custody and told the judge "it'll be on your head".
Yesterday the boy apologised for his comments. His solicitor Catherine Ghent told the judge that the High Court had ruled that the boy's detention was unlawful. But he was not to be released while proceedings were being brought to the High Court to secure appropriate proposals from the HSE.
The judge remanded the boy in custody for a further night pending the High Court action.
The boy, who is in voluntary care, had first been remanded in custody with consent on Monday. This followed his arrest on Saturday for causing criminal damage in the emergency accommodation hostel where he had resided. Before he was in the hostel, the boy, whose family is unable to provide him with accommodation, had "slept in cars and in parks", the Children's Court was told.
Garda Aileen Kelly said: "I want to relay to the court that there are serious concerns for the defendant in relation to suicidal behaviour. While he was in Garda custody over the past few days he indicated that he had tried to commit suicide by blocking air vents in the cell."
Ms Ghent told the court that the boy had also tried to commit suicide last Thursday. And on Monday evening after he had been first remanded in custody to the National Remand and Assessment Centre, "he was found in possession of a bag strap, he had to be restrained and it had to be taken off him".
On Tuesday the HSE informed the judge that it could offer the boy an interim placement in emergency hostel accommodation. Ms Ghent said the hostel accommodation was "unsuitable given his particular history".