A 14-year-old boy almost ran over a toddler and terrified pedestrians while speeding on a quad motorcycle, the Dublin Children's Court heard yesterday.
The boy, now aged 15, had sped out in front of a Garda patrol car in Ballymun and then raced along a footpath and narrowly missed a woman with a push chair, on July 14th last year.
Garda Brian Dunne said the teenager had not been wearing a helmet and seconds before the near collision, on Balbutcher Lane, in Ballymun, had been racing the quad on its two side wheels along the footpath.
Garda Dunne said that the quad passed close by the woman with the push chair, who had to move suddenly to avoid being hit, as well as other pedestrians. When the teenager was arrested an hour later, he verbally abused gardaí and was also unruly when taken to Ballymun Garda Station.
The teenager had denied a dangerous driving charge, claiming that he was somewhere else at the time of the incident.
Judge Gibbons convicted the boy, who he described as running "wild." The teenager had two previous convictions for theft offences for which he had been given the Probation Act last year.
His mother died when he was extremely young and his father reared him with his other siblings. The father said that previously the boy had been hanging around with older people but in recent months has not been causing any problems.
The court heard he left school early and is now on a FÁS training course in the hope that he would be trained and become employable.
Judge Gibbons said the teenager's conduct was disgraceful and given the seriousness of the offences, he could be facing detention. He said he could have killed someone and that people had a right to walk to the shops without being nearly knocked over.
He adjourned the boy's case until May saying he was doing so to "keep the charges hanging over him." But he warned the boy that if he "steps one foot out of line" he would be put into custody for as long as the law allowed.