Youth charged with attempted murder

EMOTIONAL scenes surrounded the Children’s Court when a Limerick teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was charged with the attempted murder of a 16-year-old boy, the victim of an alleged attack at a Corbally petrol station in July of this year.  The 17-year-old was arrested on Friday, July 23, the date of the alleged incident, and was originally charged with assault causing serious harm, and on this Tuesday, he was further charged with attempted murder.

The accused, who was originally remanded in custody to St Patrick’s Institution after the HSE told the court that they did not have “suitable accommodation” for him, returned to court this Tuesday when Det Gda Andrew Lacey cautioned and charged him at 15:50pm in front of his HSE case worker.

He was further remanded in custody to St Patrick’s Institution, with the directions of the DPP to send him forward for trial on indictment to the Central Criminal Court.
Solicitor for the accused, Darrach McCarthy, had told the court that his client had been under a voluntary care order to the HSE, had been taken into care and was being brought to a suitable residence in O’Brien’s Bridge at the time of the alleged incident.

The Children’s Court had previously denied bail due to the very serious nature of the charges, with the HSE having stated they did not have suitable accommodation for the youth who had not been before the courts prior to the alleged incident.
Mr McCarthy had said that his client needed the “assistance of the HSE now more than ever,” and that the charges were “preventing him getting that care”.