A teenage boy missing from care and driving stolen cars at high speeds into oncoming traffic is going to “kill himself or someone else” if he is not detained, his father has said.
The boy has been missing from Tusla care for more than two weeks, and is nightly posting videos of himself and others in cars driving almost 200km/h, sometimes into oncoming traffic.
“We are terrified about what could happen and no one seems able or willing to stop him,” his father told The Irish Times.
Neither the father nor his son can be identified as the boy is in voluntary care and a minor before the courts on dozens of charges associated with dangerous driving and car theft.
“He’s driving the wrong way up the roads ... He is going to kill himself or someone else. That’s the biggest thing I worry about,” his father said.
“I have no idea where he is or who he is with. He doesn’t have his [ADHD] medication or his epi-pen [for a severe nut allergy].”
In correspondence to the father’s solicitor when the boy was missing from its care, Tusla said: “[The boy] has successfully re-engaged with a structured, intentional weekly plan and is displaying strong motivation to participate.
“He also actively participates in the weekly Tusla wellness programme. [The teenager] has a well-established rapport with his allocated staff team, frequently engaging in shared pro-social activities such as card games, baking, and video games.”
The boy’s father described Tusla’s assessment of his son as “clearly incorrect”.
The Irish Times has seen videos and photographs posted on the boy’s social media of himself and others breaking into, travelling in and driving cars.
One recent video shows a car driving at speed in a housing estate and braking suddenly, causing sparks to fly up from screeching tyres.
In one photo, showing the boy standing out of the driver door of a car, the vehicle’s registration number is clearly visible. In others, speedometers show cars being driven at almost 200km/h.
During an appearance by the boy at Dublin District Children’s Court last month, Judge Brendan Toale heard of the father’s wish for him to be in special care. He has been detained on three occasions at Oberstown Children Detention Campus.
“It seems to me – and has seemed to me for a very considerable time – that this is a case that is crying out for an application to special care,” said the judge.
“I am fully aware of the intervention or lack of to some extent ... on the part of the State. He has been on the radar for quite a considerable degree of time.”
No application for special care has been made for the boy to date. Though there are 26 special care beds, just 15 are open due to staff shortages.
“He loved his primary school but didn’t really settle in secondary,” said his father. “He wouldn’t go back to school after the summer last year. It was murder here in the mornings.
“Even the school secretary was on the phone trying to coax him to come in. Then he was on the social media watching the fellas with the cars and then it started from that.”
The boy then began absconding, sometimes travelling as far as an adjoining county and often overnight. Last year he was picked up by gardaí 20km from his home in the company of known drug-dealers.
“He changed completely in personality, went totally against me,” the father said. “When he went missing – and I told the guards – he’d smash things up in the house.
“I’d tell him, ‘I have to tell the police when you’re gone. I wouldn’t be responsible for you if I didn’t’. There were times I had the guards here four times in a day, at all hours of the night.
“I couldn’t go to work. If I tried to stop him going out he’d threaten me with screwdrivers, vice-grips he’d robbed up in Woodies.”
Supports from several agencies were “promised” but “never happened” – including intervention by Tusla’s education welfare officers, organised day-activities, and counselling for the boy.
“I asked for help with his behaviours and didn’t get it,” the man said. “The end of last year I told him I couldn’t deal with his behaviours any more. I put him into voluntary care.”
The boy has been in several temporary emergency placements, in different parts of the country, but has repeatedly absconded.
“I thought he’d get all the services he needed then but it’s gone downhill since. He has gone from zero convictions a year ago to 38 now. I think the only thing that will keep him safe is special care, or to be put in Oberstown again.”
In its letter, Tusla said it would “continue to work with [the boy] to build resilience, enhance his capacity for safe decision-making, and mitigate community risks. In parallel, the agency will continue to review the necessity of special care”.
In response to queries, a spokesman for Tusla said the agency could not comment on individual children.
“We note a marked increase in the complexity of needs among a small cohort of vulnerable young people, including challenges related to mental health, substance misuse, disability, exploitation, and behaviours associated with criminality,” the agency said.
“Meeting these needs requires an inter-agency and whole-of-Government response, including timely access to services across the HSE, Tusla and in some cases, the juvenile justice system.
“Special care represents a profound intervention involving the deprivation of a young person’s liberty as a measure of last resort.
“Its purpose is as a short-term therapeutic intervention for young people who meet certain eligibility criteria and are the subject of a High Court order.”