A youth who threatened to kill his mother after learning his biological father was a man who raped her, has been let off without a criminal conviction by Judge Catherine Murphy at the Dublin Children's Court.
The youth, who is in his mid-teens, had pleaded guilty to assaulting a garda and to making a threat to kill his mother.
A garda told the court that he arrived at the youth's home and found him drunk and very agitated. "He said that he would kill us and his mother. Then he head-butted me leaving me with a slight bruise over my eye." The garda said the youth had no previous convictions.
His counsel said the youth had been going through a difficult period. Shortly before the incident his mother had told him that the man he had thought was his father was not. "His real one was a man who had raped his mother," the counsel said, adding that both were now attending counselling.
Judge Murphy noted the guilty plea and background. She said it must have been a huge shock for him. "You have a great mother; she went through that experience and came out the other end with a fine son like you." She advised him that he ought to still regard the man who had raised him, with his mother, as his real father.
"That man was your father, he was the only man who reared you - he was your dad. The other man happened to take part in an activity that made your mother pregnant, that is it. He is not your father, remember that."
She also told the youth, who was supported in court by his mother, that he must find a way of dealing with his anger.
She dismissed the charge, leaving him without a criminal conviction. The youth spoke briefly during the hearing to confirm that he had believed the man who had reared him was his father and a good one.