A SCHOOLBOY, WHO was in stolen cars which repeatedly rammed a Garda vehicle carrying two female officers in Dublin, has been described as a “danger to everyone” and remanded in custody.

The 15-year-old boy was linked to the collisions with the patrol car on 19 September 2022 and had been awaiting sentencing for several months.

Footage that went viral on social media showed the collisions cheered by on-lookers at Cherry Orchard Avenue and Cedarbrook Avenue, in Ballyfermot.

The teen’s bail was revoked today after Judge Paul Kelly heard evidence of multiple bail breaches and claims that the boy’s involvement in a lengthy high-speed car chase, which ended after a crash on the M50.

Detective Garda Michael McNulty told Dublin Children’s Court the teenager had “umpteen chances” over the past 12 months.

He said the boy broke curfew and was in an area from which he was banned.

The garda alleged that on a date last month, the teenager stole a car in Blanchardstown, led gardai on a pursuit to Wicklow and returned to Dublin on the M50 until he crashed, assaulted, and injured a garda.

He also accepted that the teen was injured during that incident, adding, “Yes, he is a danger to everyone”.

The teen was seen in a stolen car a day earlier when he should have been home. He had also been spotted in an area where he had been barred.

Defence solicitor Peter Connolly said the teen accepted the breaches occurred and there was an element of peer pressure. He pleaded for a final chance and added that the boy now has access to mental health services following a two-year wait.

He submitted that his parents had engaged with gardaí and services and remanding the teen in custody could be a retrograde step.

However, Judge Kelly said that the boy, accompanied to the proceedings by his mother and father, had “every conceivable support over the last 12 months”.

He refused bail and remanded him in custody to the Oberstown Children Detention Campus to appear again next week.

The teen dodged court previously by “refusing to get out of bed” for a previous appearance on 30 May, but he turned up two days late to plead guilty to 19 charges.

They involved six separate prosecutions for incidents over nine months in Dublin last year when he was 14.

Two of them were for allowing himself to be a passenger in two stolen cars on 19 September 2022, when the patrol car was rammed three times.

Detective Garda McNulty said that after responding to a report of joyriders, two female gardaí were “rammed” by two Toyota Aquas.

The cars were stolen within the previous 48 hours and were driven dangerously on the date of the incident.

“They proceeded to ram the patrol cars three times,” Detective McNulty had alleged, adding that the boy was a back-seat passenger.

Two of his other charges were for criminal damage to a CCTV system and a fire extinguisher at a residential building in Reuben Square, Dublin 8.

An incident on 19 August led to charges for unlawfully driving a stolen vehicle, having no licence or insurance, failing to produce documents and seven counts of dangerous driving in the Tallaght area.

There were also guilty pleas to being a passenger in a stolen vehicle in the Drimnagh area on 9 May, attempted unlawful entry to a motor vehicle in Citywest on 16 April, and criminal damage to a car passenger window on 6 June in Tallaght. His case to remain in the Children’s Court.

A co-defendant is to be sent to the Circuit Court, which has wider sentencing powers, but the trial venue of a third youth has yet to be confirmed.

They are accused of dangerous driving and endangerment of life by driving aggressively and colliding with the patrol car. It is alleged they intentionally or recklessly created a risk of death or serious harm.

Two other boys avoided court prosecution by acceptance into the Garda juvenile youth diversion programme.

Comments are closed as legal proceedings are ongoing.