A High Court judge has expressed the hope that a troubled youth who died last week, six years after taking legal proceedings which have been relied on since by many such children to vindicate their constitutional rights, "has now found the peace, tranquility and serenity which eluded him in this life".
Mr Justice Kelly was speaking about a 19-year-old who died in what were described as "tragic circumstances" last Thursday and whose High Court proceedings seeking appropriate care and accommodation were taken when he was 13.
In a landmark High Court decision in 1995, given in those proceedings, Mr Justice Geoghegan declared that troubled children had a constitutional entitlement to appropriate care and education.
Yesterday Mr Justice Kelly said he wanted to express his sympathy to the family and friends of the youth and, most especially, to his foster parents, who had demonstrated a loyalty of "heroic proportions" to him. They had regularly appeared before the courts seeking appropriate care for him.
The judge said people might well ask who the youth was. He was well known in legal circles, not by his name but by his initials. His case had led to the 1995 decision declaring his constitutional rights and that of many other children since.
The boy had achieved a fame probably not intended but important for other children facing similar difficulties, he added.
Mr Justice Kelly said the boy had only recently crossed the threshold into adult life and had last week crossed another. "I hope now he has found the peace, tranquility and serenity which eluded him in this life."
