{"id":410895,"date":"2026-04-22T00:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T00:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/410895\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T00:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T00:31:08","slug":"girl-16-repeatedly-missing-from-care-was-dealing-crack-on-oconnell-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/410895\/","title":{"rendered":"Girl (16) repeatedly missing from care was dealing crack on O’Connell Street"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 16-year-old girl who has repeatedly gone missing from care was caught selling crack cocaine on Dublin’s O’Connell Street, prompting “major concerns” for her safety.<\/p>\n

The teen, who cannot be named because she is a minor, appeared before Judge Paul Kelly at the Dublin Children’s Court on Tuesday, facing fresh drug charges, just over a week ahead of her trial for cocaine dealing.<\/p>\n

She was charged with possessing cocaine and having it for sale or supply.<\/p>\n

A contested bail hearing was told that the substance had been tested and found to contain cocaine, with garda\u00ed suspecting it to be crack.<\/p>\n

Bail was granted with a warning to comply with her conditions, including a curfew.<\/p>\n

It was noted that Tusla applications have been made under the Child Care Act for a more appropriate placement for the child, which could be affected if she were remanded in custody to the Oberstown Children Detention Campus.<\/p>\n

She was arrested in the early hours of Tuesday and held pending her court appearance.<\/p>\n

The teen faced an objection to bail on her new charges and an application to revoke her bail attached to her forthcoming hearing for cocaine dealing and damaging a desk at Garda Station on a date in January.<\/p>\n

Garda Finbar Thompson said there were “major concerns for her safety” following her latest arrest for alleged drug transactions.<\/p>\n

The suspected crack supply was estimated to be worth \u20ac240, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Garda Thompson said the girl had gone missing from her accommodation or breached her curfew 17 times in the past 18 days, and 67 times overall.<\/p>\n

However, he conceded to defence counsel Orla Doolin that the teen always returned to her accommodation in Dublin.<\/p>\n

Citing hearsay, the barrister also challenged attempts to introduce a chart outlining the dates the girl had gone missing. However, Doolin said that the girl agreed she had been on four dates.<\/p>\n

Garda Sergeant Chris Jones outlined that the missing reports had been collated from the teen’s current placement and uploaded to the Garda database.<\/p>\n

He detailed that he had kept the girl under observation at about 1am as she was with older drug users aged from 20 to their early 40s.<\/p>\n

He said the bag seized from the teen contained “15 individual street deals, not simply one block of crack.”<\/p>\n

He agreed with counsel that it was dark, but said there was lighting in the area and the girl was recognisable.<\/p>\n

The defence argued that there was nothing to suggest the girl was a flight risk or likely to interfere with witnesses or evidence.<\/p>\n

The barrister submitted that, given the value of the substance in the new charge, the girl, if convicted, was unlikely to face a custodial sentence. It was also stressed that the teen still enjoyed the presumption of innocence.<\/p>\n

Judge Kelly declined the request to deny bail, but warned that he would be “seriously inclined to do so” if she continued to break the terms, which included a ban on going to the O’Connell Street area.<\/p>\n

Despite her track record, he allowed her a final opportunity to comply.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Student<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

Student who sued UCD after alleged rape loses bid for costs order over anonymity<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The teenager, who sat with her face resting in her palm for most of the hearing, interacted briefly, with some prompting, when quizzed by the judge on whether she understood.<\/p>\n

She will appear again next week.<\/p>\n

Her social care worker was present at the bail hearing, and the judge was informed that she was also supposed to be involved in a bail supervision programme that assists juvenile defendants.<\/p>\n

However, garda\u00ed had been unable to get an update on her engagement by the time of the hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 16-year-old girl who has repeatedly gone missing from care was caught selling crack cocaine on Dublin’s O’Connell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-410895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}