Judge wants top forensic psychiatrist for Dún Laoghaire stabbing case

A JUDGE has asked a leading forensic psychiatrist to attend the next hearing of a 15-year-old Dublin schoolboy accused of a serious knife attack on a woman he allegedly met through a social media website.

The boy, who cannot be named because he is a minor, was refused bail on December

26 after a garda testified that he feared the teen would be “likely to commit murder if released”. The boy faced his third hearing before Judge John O’Connor, at the Children’s Court, yesterday.

The boy was further remanded in custody to appear again in two weeks.

He is charged with assault causing harm to the woman and production of a knife during the alleged assault at the baths in Queen’s Road, Dún Laoghaire, on December 23 last.

He has not yet indicated how he will plead.

The woman, who is 25 and of Irish-Malaysian descent, was found near the baths at around

3.20pm on the date of the incident. She was hospitalised with serious injuries, including horizontal cuts to her neck.

The court had ordered that the boy was to receive assessment consultation therapy service (ACTS) while in custody at the Oberstown detention centre. ACTS provides multidisciplinary consultation, assessment and interventions to young people.

Yesterday, the case resumed and Judge O’Connor clarified the reporting restrictions of the Children Act.

He assured the teen’s parents nothing could be published that could identify their son. The teen told the judge he was not the usual type of person in the Oberstown detention centre.

Judge O’Connor asked that forensic psychiatrist Professor Harry Kennedy, who is a director of the Central Mental Hospital, attends the next hearing to see if there was a suitable alternative facility.

Detective Garda Daniel Treacy had informed the court earlier that so far the only directions were in relation to the charges already before the court. He has said further directions were not yet available but that “we expect there will be further charges”.