Louth teenager (16) rammed gardaí on two separate occasions and smashed windows of 13 cars

A teenage boy involved in two separate rammings of garda patrol cars, and who broke windows of parked vehicles on another occasion, has been sentenced to 20 months detention.

The 16-year-old, who cannot be identified because of his age, pleaded guilty to 38 charges when he appeared in custody before Judge McKiernan.

The court was told that he has been on remand in Oberstown Children Detention Campus since last September and had carried out this spree of offending over a seven-month period to feed his drug addiction.

Evidence was presented that on 17 February 2023 he was seen on CCTV taking an e-scooter from Tesco Extra.

On the night of 2/3 March the teenager broke windows of 13 cars and one van, across locations at Táin Court Apartments car park, Bridge Street; Chapel Street, Lennon Melia Terrace and Coulter Place.

In one instance he also stole a dashcam from a Volkswagen Polo.

The total damage amounted to €4,200.

On 15 March the defendant was found asleep in the stairwell of a property in Patrick Tierney Crescent. He had no permission to be there.

He was again spotted on CCTV taking a €1,200 electric bike from outside McDonalds on 18 April, and ten days later was found with €40-worth of MDMA; while on 10 June he had cocaine valued €15.

Court presenter Sgt Laura Blanch added that at 6pm on 17 July, a Toyota Aqua, stolen from The Ramparts, was detected travelling at 155kph on the M1 at Drumleck.

Gardaí followed this car which undertook traffic on the hard shoulder and at Junction 9 it crashed into a toll barrier, causing €7,000 damage.

The occupants abandoned the car and ran across four lanes of the motorway trying to escape.

On 12 September a Nissan stolen the previous day in Aghameen Park failed to stop for gardaí.

It drove at speed the wrong way on Bridge Street and rammed a patrol car before continuing and driving on the wrong side of the road at Clanbrassil Street and Market Square.

At Pearse Park this vehicle rammed a second marked patrol car. The defendant was arrested at the scene.

Sgt Blanch said that charges arising out of these incidents included two counts of endangerment, 12 counts of dangerous driving and one of criminal damage.

A probation report was available, and the court was told there were no previous convictions.

Barrister Stephen Faulkner said that before going into Oberstown his client had been living in Dundalk with his mother and siblings.

This offending in a ‘spree format’ was to feed an addiction to street tablets, cocaine, and other substances ‘to his and society’s detriment’.

The defendant was attending school in custody and engaging well. It was reported that he had a lot of potential.

He acknowledged his addiction issues and regretted his behaviour, Mr Faulkner continued.

There was a vast number of matters which warranted detention and the court was asked to backdate any sentence.

Judge McKiernan remarked these were very serious matters which were ‘on the boundary’ to retain them in the district court.

The judge imposed sentences totalling 20 months backdated to when he went into custody on 12 September and disqualified him from driving for four years.

Bail in the event of an appeal was set at a personal bond of €300 with an independent surety of €2,000 cash to be lodged.

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