The Children's Court: The girl, who was sobbing softly with her face buried in her hands, looked up briefly at her family with red and imploring eyes.
Her mother and sister sat stiffly on the wooden bench at the back of the courtroom without looking at the girl.
The 17-year-old had spent a week in Mountjoy prison after allegedly assaulting her brother, sister and mother, but was released back to the family on condition she did not engage in more threatening behaviour.
But the girl was arrested again by gardaí at 3.15 a.m. on the morning of the court appearance after allegedly attacking her mother with a knife.
As the garda robotically read through his evidence of the early morning arrest, the girl began to bite her fingers and tears streamed down her cheeks. The girl's solicitor said her family was objecting to her returning home and no alternative place was available at present.
"Her behavioural problems appear to arise from drinking alcohol and the people she is hanging around with," the girl's solicitor said. "She was remanded in custody for the purpose of a psychiatric report. I just received the report. It unfortunately is not as comprehensive as we would like because it was carried out in prison."
Judge Angela Ní Chondúin said there was little other option except to remand the girl in custody pending another assessment and ordered the probation and welfare service to complete a report. It could take up to eight weeks to complete everything.
At hearing this, the girl gasped sharply and let out a guttural cry. Her head fell downwards and she began to sob softly to herself. "I hope there might be some alternative accommodation in the meantime," the girl's solicitor added.
Outside the courtroom, the family gathered around the solicitor, with white faces and black clothes.
Another mother appeared before the court a day later, saying she was willing to take back her son who had been threatening and abusive at home a week earlier.
Then she broke down in tears, telling the court that the 17-year-old had been coming back to the house late at night, out of his head on drink, and breaking up the house.
Now she sat more composed at the back of the court, with a relation, head arched upwards and looking grimly determined.
The boy who had spent the last week in detention, sat sullenly in the witness box, avoiding eye contact with his mother. "Was alcohol a factor in his behaviour?" the judge asked the garda who arrested the boy.
"Yes it was," the boy's mother interrupted sharply.
The judge asked if there was someone willing to take the boy, and the mother interjected again. "I'll take him back if he behaves himself," she said quickly.
Judge Ní Chondúin turned to the boy, dressed in a sports shirt and tracksuit bottoms, and told him he had better obey his mother.
"I'll fix bail, but if there is any breach of conditions, you'll go back into detention. One of the conditions is that you will abstain from drinking alcohol, another is that you will obey a nightly curfew from 9 p.m. until 9 a.m.," the judge said.
The boy did not look up except to indicate with a slight nod of his head that he understood the bail conditions.
"I imagine that after a week in custody he will have learned something," the judge said, still looking at him.
"Hopefully," the boy's mother said flatly, as she walked briskly from the courtroom trailed by her son.
Carl O'Brien will give his analysis of a month's hearings in The Children's Court in Weekend Review next Saturday. This series will resume on an occasional basis.
