The State has no secure special care space for a teenage girl threatened with being shot if she does not co-operate with a drug gang seeking to exploit her, a High Court judge has been told.
Mr Justice Oisín Quinn said he was concerned that while there were 26 special care beds in the country, only 15 were currently staffed and none was available for the 16-year-old girl whose life had been threatened.
Mr Justice Quinn heard that the teenager, who cannot be identified by court order, was currently in the care of a non-secure private residential agency where the manager had no authority to restrain her from leaving, should she wish, while adult drug dealers seeking to exploit her have called to collect her in cars.
Barrister Paul Gunning told Mr Justice Quinn that while the girl required “civil detention” for her own health and safety in a secure special care unit, Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, would be powerless to abide by any court detention order because of the lack of staffed beds.
Death of Pope Francis: Derek Mooney leads RTÉ’s coverage to intermittently jaw-dropping effect
Plans unveiled for south Dublin winter sports arena to host State’s first ice hockey franchise
Xi Jinping’s refusal to kowtow to Trump now looks like a shrewd move
Brace yourself as world’s leaders make holy show of themselves at Pope’s funeral
“There are only 15 staffed beds in two special care units in Dublin and one in Limerick, yet there is no bed available for this child,” he said.
Mr Gunning, who appeared for Tusla, said gardaí were unable to investigate, detain and prosecute the male adult exploiters involved as they required voluntary statements from the girl, and she was living in constant fear of being killed.
Mr Justice Quinn said he was deeply concerned to learn of the threats.
The judge heard there was a risk of the girl absconding from where she currently resides and she had made previous attempts to flee. On one occasion when she was being driven in a car on a motorway, another car with five males in it had driven alongside the vehicle and the men had shouted threats at her.
“Even if the special care detention order is made, the Child and Family Agency will not be able to comply with it,” Mr Justice Quinn said.
He said he intended to make an order empowering gardaí, in the event of her absconding and being in the company of inappropriate people, to search for, detain and return her to where she is currently residing. The court could only hope that a staffed bed in one of the three secure units would quickly be made available for her.
He made that order and, after requests from counsel for the girl’s guardian ad litem and, separately, for the girl’s mother, made an additional direction empowering gardaí to search for the girl and return her to her current residence in the event of her absconding. He returned the proceedings to May 1st.
