A suicidal 13-year-old girl who went missing after discharging herself from hospital earlier this week has been returned to the care of the Health Service Executive (HSE) after she was located by gardaí.
The girl was found on Wednesday night, several hours after an application to the High Court that she be arrested and detained for her own protection was granted by Judge Elizabeth Dunne.
The court heard that she had recently tried to kill herself by taking a drug overdose, that she had previously threatened self-harm and had a history of verbal aggression. She had recently spoken of wanting to stab her mother and a social worker. The High Court yesterday heard evidence from Gerard Durkan SC, for the girl, and from counsel for the HSE. Judge John Mac Menamin instructed that the girl - who turned 13 last November - be returned to the care of the HSE.
She was brought to Ballydowd Special Care Unit, a secure residential childcare facility that caters for the needs of young people with serious emotional and behavioural problems. Young people are detained there by order of the High Court for their own protection, not because they have committed offences.
On Wednesday, the court heard that the girl - who was in the care of the HSE at the time - had been taken to a Dublin hospital last Saturday after she had taken an overdose. However, there was no paediatric, psychiatric on-call service at the hospital at weekends and she was told that it could not hold her.
Attempts by a care agency to find appropriate emergency accommodation for the girl failed. She left the hospital of her own volition on Tuesday night, then turned up at her mother's house on Wednesday and threatened to kill herself. She then went missing.
The court heard that the HSE had been invited to make an application to deal with the matter before she went missing, but that no application had been made. It also heard that the girl was not suffering from mental illness.
A spokesman for the HSE confirmed that the girl had been returned to its care last night. The case will be reviewed by the High Court in the coming weeks.
