An unprecedented order was made by the High Court yesterday directing the release of a troubled teenage boy from a State remand centre so he may reside in a special school in England on weekdays and spend weekends with his mother and siblings.
The boy's mother went to England with her partner and two other children earlier this year because she feared her violent estranged husband would be freed from prison.
Mr Justice Kelly said the institution cost a lot of money but the English authorities were prepared to spend money on children's welfare. The State should be grateful that such facilities were being made available when it was not prepared to make them available here.
He was satisfied the English proposal was in the physical, social, intellectual, moral and religious interests of the 13-year-old boy, who has been in the State centre for more than six months because of his out-of-control behaviour.
All professionals and others involved in the case agreed the centre could not meet the boy's special needs but the judge had to send him there in the absence of any suitable alternative.
The judge said there was a reservation about the proposed English arrangement in regard to the boy's moral welfare because the family unit to which the boy was going was not that recognised under the Constitution (based on marriage) and not in accordance with the Roman Catholic religion in which the boy would be brought up.
However "undesirable" this was, Mr Justice Kelly said, it was not a perfect world and the reservation should not affect the overall picture which was that the boy's welfare would be best served by allowing him to go to England.
The boy would be with his mother, with whom he had a good relationship, and his sister and brother. The mother's partner was a married man who had separated from his wife, had no criminal record and was a hard worker. The partner appeared to care for the mother, to understand his position regarding her children, and there was a total absence of domestic violence.
Lawyers for the boy's mother, his temporary guardian, the health board charged with responsibility for him, and the State all supported the application to have the boy sent to England. Counsel for the boy's father, who is serving seven years for kidnapping and other offences and who faces trial on a rape charge later this year, said he wanted whatever was in the boy's best interest and did not wish him to remain in the State remand centre. He was anxious he should continue to maintain contact with his son.
The court was told telephone contact would be maintained and the mother had not taken steps to restrict access between her estranged husband and children.
Last February Mr Justice Kelly refused what he described as a "half-baked" and "ill-thought-out" application to have the boy visit his mother in England at weekends and then return to Ireland to the State centre, a place where he did not want to be.
