A 16-year-old youth who was a passenger in a stolen sports car that killed two gardaí in south Dublin last year is "very remorseful", the Court of Criminal Appeal was told yesterday.
The three-judge court decided the youth, who was jailed for four years in February, should be moved from St Patrick's Institution to Trinity House detention centre for young offenders, and that the Trinity House authorities should determine what programmes he should follow.
These could include pre-release provision and mobility trips outside the unit.
The court directed the four-year sentence should apply from January last.
In response to queries from Ms Deirdre Seery, deputy director of Trinity House, as to how the boy was to be managed, the court appeared to indicate the boy might be released without having served the full four years.
Ms Seery had earlier indicated it could not keep young people beyond the age of 19. The centre generally did not keep boys beyond a two-year period. The youth will be 17 next week.
She said the youth had done very well while at the centre prior to his going to St Patrick's Institution in April. He had been about a year in Trinity House at that point. He had been "a pleasure" to have in the centre.
She said the youth had gone to St Patrick's on April 9th of his own volition because he wanted to "pay his dues" and to get on with the four-year sentence in St Patrick's which had been imposed on him by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in February.
She was not sure Trinity House would be the most suitable place for him now given the fact the other inmates were mostly younger. However, they could put programmes in place for him which would be beneficial.
While upholding the four-year sentence, the CCA found there was a technical defect in the sentence in relation to the Circuit Court judge having projected into the future as to where the boy should be detained.
The Circuit Court judge had decided the boy should be moved to St Patrick's Institution to serve his four-year sentence after his two-year sentence on other offences in Trinity House.
The boy had pleaded guilty to a number of offences, including burglary, the unlawful taking of a car and allowing himself to be carried as a passenger in a car. All the offences occurred on April 14th, 2002. On that date, the car collided with a Garda patrol car on the Stillorgan dual-carriageway. Two gardaí, Garda Tony Tighe and Garda Michael Padden, were killed.
Mr Justice Fennelly said this was not the youth's first offence; he had a number of previous convictions. He was on bail on other offences at the time of these offences, and prior to the deaths of the gardaí had been jailed for two years in Trinity House on other offences but no place was available. Had there been he would have been in custody on the day of the collision.
However, given the seriousness of the offences and their tragic consequences, the record of the accused, the court would impose a four-year sentence, but would direct that term be served at Trinity House.