The Children's Court Carl O'BrienThey looked more like boy band members than young offenders.With their carefully torn jeans, open-necked shirts and slightly scuffed leather jackets, the two Romanian teenagers sauntered into court, looking out of place amid the tracksuits and sombre suits which usually occupy Dublin's Children's Court.
The 15-year-old and 16-year-old were in court for charges relating to breach of the peace at a Dublin hospital in the early hours of the morning.
As part of a large group they had gathered outside the A&E ward and wanted to see a Romanian child who had been admitted to the hospital.
The boys' solicitor said the background to the incident was somewhat complex and involved a German woman who had adopted a child some time previously from a Romanian family.
This family had gone on to live in Ireland and the German woman arrived in the country so the family could see their child. However, things began to go wrong when the Romanians said they wanted to keep the child.
When the child was admitted to hospital in Dublin for a brief time, the Romanian family arrived to get the child back. That was when the trouble started.
One of the gardaí at the scene of the disturbance at 1.45 a.m. said he found a large group of people who were obstructing the entrance and started becoming abusive to members of staff and gardaí.
"When I asked them to move, it took them five minutes to move 100 yards," the garda said. "Some of them started to become abusive to the gardaí. One of the accused turned to me and called me an Irish pig."
Two of the group, the 15 and 16-year-old, were arrested for breach of the peace and charged at the local Garda station.
"They accept their behaviour was unacceptable," said the boys' solicitor, pleading for mitigation. "They both pleaded guilty to the offence."
A translator leaned over to the witness box where they sat and whispered to the boys, who looked with wide eyes at their solicitor and the judge.
Judge Angela Ní Chondúin said she would bind them to the peace and insisted that they not reoffend within the next year.
The boys, with trendy, tousled hairstyles, broke out in beaming smiles, turned to the judge and thanked her effusively, before leaving the courtroom with the collars of their leather jackets turned up.
Two other boys who appeared before Judge Ní Chondúin yesterday also left the courtroom with relieved smiles after learning they would not face detention for assaulting a garda.
Two gardaí gave evidence about being called to a housing estate in west Dublin and finding the two boys, then both aged 17, in the back of a Nissan Micra.
An injured garda, who had apparently radioed for help, stumbled towards the gardaí who arrived on the scene and told them one of the passengers had assaulted him. "There was blood on his hands, face and neck," one garda told the judge.
After considering the matter, the judge said she would bind them to the peace and release them each on bail of €200.
"You're not to go around assaulting people," Judge Ní Chondúin said stonily, "and if you come back before me, you'll be facing a few months in jail. Do you understand"
The boys who meekly nodded and quickly exited the courtroom.
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