A 16-year-old girl who is “exchanging sex for money” and abusing multiple drugs, and a 14-year-old boy found passed out in central Dublin having overdosed were among three children ordered by the High Court on Thursday to be detained in special care.
Mr Justice John Jordan, who hears the weekly special care list – where children at the highest risk may be detained for their own safety – described as “troubling” that there were no beds available in any of the three special care units.
It was “likely” two would be available next Tuesday, the judge heard, but this was “not certain”, barrister Paul Gunning for Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, said.
At least one of the children will not get a bed by next week, a Tusla source confirmed. A decision would be taken in coming days on which child that would be.
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The three include a 14-year-old boy who was discharged from special care in May but has repeatedly absconded from his follow-on placement.
He has a “complex disability profile of a mild intellectual disability, insecure attachment, complex PTSD and developmental trauma”, said barrister Sarah McKechnie, for Tusla.
Last month, after having been missing for 10 days, he was “located in [the] city centre semiconscious, having taken substances, [and] was transported to Temple Street”.
The boy has absconded multiple times since. Most recently he was returned by gardaí to his placement suffering dizziness, with bad hearing and a sore stomach. He was taken to hospital where he “presented as highly agitated and aggressive”, and tested positive for cocaine and cannabis.
“There are significant concerns due to his vulnerability, and it is hugely disappointing he immediately reverted to high-risk behaviours ... Special care is the only alternative at this time,” said Ms McKechnie.
Making the order, Mr Justice Jordan said: “I want to see [the boy] get a bed without delay.”
A 15-year-old boy, who has been known to Tusla since 2014, had experienced domestic violence, parental alcohol abuse and a mother who had led a “partying lifestyle”.
Though subject of an interim care order, he “regularly absconds” from his placement and stays sometimes with his mother in a hotel, or in the houses of “people with very negative influence”, said Mr Gunning, for Tusla.
“[Tusla] is concerned [he] is involved in drug dealing, drug use, criminality generally, violence.”
Making the order, the judge said: “I don’t want to go back [to the situation] that was commonplace on this list up to a month ago [where there were no beds available for children he had made special care orders for]. I am hoping I will be told Thursday next that [the boy] has a bed.”
An order was granted for a 16-year-old girl “with a significant history of poly-drug use” who is “being harmed, abused, sexually exploited and has very little ability to keep herself safe”.
Ms McKechnie, for Tusla, said the girl’s parents had placed her in voluntary care some years ago as they were “unable to keep her safe”.
They were “extremely worried she will end her life by misadventure”. She is exchanging sex for money, has been found unconscious and needing medical attention, was involved in an incident where a knife was pulled on a security guard and has been hit by a taxi.
It was “frightening” to read the list of drugs she abuses, said the judge: “MDMA, crack cocaine, cocaine, ketamine, nitrous oxide, benzodiazepine and cannabis”.
Granting the order, he said: “I expect this ... to be complied with. [Tusla] have presented evidence of the extreme risk this child is at and [Tusla] has an obligation to act immediately. I expect that to happen.”
