Teen kicked mum outside court
A 14-year-old boy kicked and pushed his mother outside the juvenile court at Cork District Court moments before his case was called — yesterday the judge warned him he was on his last chance.
Judge Mary Dorgan warned the youngster that he would be going straight to Oberstown if he stepped out of line once between now and next week’s sitting of the juvenile court. The 14-year-old and his mother were both in tears when they entered the courtroom after an audible altercation outside the door.
The boy’s mother said she could not take any more and that it was time for him to be sent to Oberstown. She said her son assaulted her with a hurley at home a fortnight ago. The young defendant, who faces sentencing for several matters, said yesterday: “She was shouting at me.”
The judge said to the youngster that he had been doing well from week to week but now things were going badly wrong. He said:
I am fighting with everyone.
He said he was getting into trouble with students at his school through social media and had taken down his Facebook page. Eddie Burke, solicitor, said the boy was afraid to go to school because he was being picked on by others and that there was a similar scenario in an alternative education project which had been suggested.
Inspector Brian O’Donovan said one reason the teenager was turning up late at school was because he was out until one o’clock in the morning.
His curfew requires him to be home every night by 9pm. Judge Dorgan noted from the background reports on the boy that he was continuing to smoke cannabis and that this was identified as a high-risk factor.
“What would you do if you were me?” Judge Dorgan asked the 14-year-old. “Send me away,” he replied.
A social work case conference with the family is scheduled for during the week, said Mr Burke. Judge Dorgan put sentencing back for a week and warned him to go to school, keep his curfew, be nice to his mother, and stop smoking cannabis. In January of this year he stole money from a schoolboy on a bus.
