A MAN who picked up a teenage rent boy in the Phoenix Park in Dublin awoke the next morning to find the youth dead.
The death of the 17 year old in February was reported to a local priest by the man, who had taken him to his home off the North Circular Road, a Garda source has confirmed. A post mortem revealed his death was caused by asphyxiation due to a combination of alcohol and drug abuse.
Organisations dealing with homeless youngsters and prostitutes say this highlights the sordid prostitution trade in which a number of young men, many of them drug addicts, are involved.
The youth, who came from Tallaght, is said to have been from "a dysfunctional family" and was known to social workers. It is thought that he had only recently become linked to the rent boy trade in the Phoenix Park.
Gardai patrolling the area had (spoken to the teenager for the first time on the night before his death.
At around 1 a.m. on February 25th last, the youth was approached by a 37 year old man on a bicycle in the Wellington Monument area of the park. They then travelled to the man's home, close to the North Circular Road.
When the man awoke the following morning, the teenager was dead in the bed beside him. The man contacted a local priest, who alerted gardai.
In a statement to gardai, the man said he had gone to the park because he was lonely. After meeting the homeless youngster, he had taken pity on him and offered to give him a bed for the night.