{"id":81775,"date":"2025-10-15T08:25:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T08:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/81775\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T08:25:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T08:25:07","slug":"teen-granted-permission-to-challenge-suspended-prison-term-because-no-hostel-places-available-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/81775\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen granted permission to challenge suspended prison term because no hostel places available \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The High Court<\/a> has granted permission to a teenager to challenge a decision by a District Court judge to sentence him to a suspended prison term because of a lack of approved hostels providing residential settings for minors convicted of crimes.<\/p>\n

The 16-year-old, who cannot be named, is taking the action through his father after he was sentenced last July by a Dublin District Court judge who branded the situation a \u201cdisgrace\u201d. The boy\u2019s three-month prison sentence was fully suspended for six months.<\/p>\n

The action seeks to quash the District Court\u2019s allegedly \u201cunlawful\u201d sentence and demands the State provide the father with details of how many certified and inspected hostels in the country are available to probation and welfare services.<\/p>\n

A declaration is also sought from the court that the State failed to protect and vindicate the boy\u2019s constitutional rights and that they failed to comply with their statutory obligations.<\/p>\n

The action is being taken against the District Court judge, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Minister for Justice, Ireland and the Attorney General.<\/p>\n

Papers submitted to the High Court state that since 2023, the boy has been charged in the District Court with drug offences, theft, burglary, dangerous driving, criminal damage, unauthorised taking of a vehicle and possession of certain articles.<\/p>\n

At the High Court this week, Joe Jeffers SC, appearing with barrister Brendan Hennessy for the boy, told Ms Justice Mary Rose Gearty that the teen was eligible for a Probation Residential Supervision Order (PRSO) but no suitable premises was available.<\/p>\n

It is submitted on behalf of the boy that on July 7th, 2025, the District Court judge \u201cexpressly stated that he wished to impose a PRSO, which is a form of probation order, on the applicant, but that he [the judge] was precluded from imposing such a sanction due to the absence of any hostel residence\u201d.<\/p>\n

It is claimed that the judge\u2019s discretion when imposing sentence on the applicant was \u201cunlawfully fettered\u201d by the State\u2019s failure to provide proper hostel residence under Section 126 of the Children Act 2001.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe applicant was sentenced to a suspended custodial sentence, contrary to the express wishes of the District Court,\u201d it is submitted.<\/p>\n

In an affidavit, the father has submitted that the boy\u2019s mother has addiction issues and that he has been living with his great-grandmother, who is in her 80s, at an address in Dublin.<\/p>\n

The man submits the great-grandmother is \u201cbarely mobile, uses a walking aid with a seat and sometimes crutches\u201d and that he has \u201creal concerns about her ability to care for and supervise [the boy]\u201d.<\/p>\n

The man states that his son has fallen in with a \u201cbad crowd steeped in criminal activity\u201d and drug-taking. The father\u2019s affidavit reads that his son comes to the regular attention of garda\u00ed and was recently arrested while travelling in a stolen vehicle being driven the wrong way down a motorway.<\/p>\n

While the man would \u201clove\u201d to care for his son on a permanent basis he describes their relationship as \u201cdifficult\u201d.<\/p>\n

He states that had a PRSO been imposed by the judge the boy would be placed in a hostel and would have received health and education aid.<\/p>\n

It is submitted that the District Court judge said it was a \u201cdisgrace\u201d that sanctions provided in the statute were not available to him and that the judge stated \u201cfor the record, I want to impose a residential order but cannot do so\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Justice Gearty granted leave for the ex parte application, where only one side is represented, and adjourned the matter to November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The High Court has granted permission to a teenager to challenge a decision by a District Court judge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[73,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-81775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-high-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81775","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=81775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}