A YOUTH WHO “thrashed” a juvenile detention room during a stand-off while awaiting murder trial has been spared an additional sentence and conviction.

The 17-year-old boy pleaded guilty to causing €5,992 worth of criminal damage at the Dublin Children’s Court.

Garda Nicky McBride told Judge Paul Kelly the teenager and another youth “barricaded” themselves in a room and threatened staff for several hours.

They used planks to smash a door and television for no reason.

It ended when gardaí intervened.

After seeing photos of the damage, Judge Kelly remarked that the room was “absolutely trashed”.

The youth cannot be named as a minor. In May, he was sentenced to life detention with a review after eight years.

In that case, he admitted to murdering Claudio Robu. The Romanian man, 39, was kicked to death on a laneway off Madison Road, South Circular Road, Dublin 8 on 14 September 2020.

The boy, then 16, was on remand at the time of the subsequent Oberstown incident.

The juvenile court heard he had experienced a violent childhood.

His mother’s partner was abusive to him, and he was abandoned in May 2020. The teen also pleaded guilty to possessing €10 of cannabis on 4 September 2020.

Counsel said the boy had been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, but it went untreated. He was exposed to cannabis from a very young age but is now drug-free.

He is doing well in custody and hopes to complete the Leaving Certificate.

Judge Paul Kelly was furnished with a probation report on the youth at the sentencing today.

Barrister Amy Deane also told the court the boy was remorseful.

Judge Kelly said the youth has to confront “far more challenging matters over the next number of years, anything I do is not going to impinge on that”. He applied the Probation of Offenders Act.

“It is academic no matter what I do,” he added.

The boy did not address the court and is expected to be transferred into the adult prison system after he turns 18.