THE 15 year old boy who was convicted of attempted rape last week and then absconded from custody on Sunday was rearrested last night and returned to Trinity House at 10 p.m.
An emergency meeting of the board of management of Trinity House, Lusk, Co Dublin, is to take place tomorrow. The board will discuss its policy on bringing inmates on trips outside the secure centre.
Trinity House is a secure detention centre for juveniles run by the Department of Education.
The boy was brought to a cinema in Santry as part of a programme whereby inmates at the detention centre are rewarded for good behaviour. He was one of three boys brought to the cinema, with one staff member acting as supervisor on a so called "mobility trip".
These trips are part of a "behaviour modification programme" whereby good behaviour results in more trips. The trips can include outdoor pursuits, visits to shops, or entertainment.
The boy was convicted in the Central Criminal Court last Wednesday of attempted rape, in a case which heard that the victim had been gang raped while a group stood around laughing. The youth was remanded in continuing custody for sentence in September.
The boy was already serving a two year sentence in Trinity House following a conviction, in April, 1995, on a larceny charge.
He was convicted in March, 1994, of criminal damage, robbery, assault and burglary, and sentenced to 12 months in St Laurence's industrial school, in Finglas. Four weeks later, while on weekend leave, he was involved in the gang rape in a Co Westmeath field. The victim was a 23 year old mother of three.
The boy was released from St Laurence's in February 1995, and held on remand for a month in Oberstown Boys' Centre, which is adjacent to Trinity House.
He first came to the attention of the authorities in November, 1993, when he was the subject of an assessment.
