‘a danger’ | 

Schoolboy jailed over ramming of Garda car in Cherry Orchard and other ‘joyriding’ crimes

He is the second youth to be handed a custodial sentence for involvement in the collisions

Today at 16:28

A schoolboy passenger in stolen cars used to repeatedly ram a Garda vehicle carrying two female officers in Dublin has been detained for 11 months over that incident and a litany of other joyriding crimes.

He is the second youth to be handed a custodial sentence for involvement in the collisions at Cherry Orchard Avenue and Cedarbrook Avenue on September 19, 2022. Videos went viral on social media, showing the ramming while crowds cheered.

The 15-year-old boy, described as a “danger to everyone”, had been awaiting sentencing at the Dublin Children’s Court for several months.

Bail was revoked in September after Judge Paul Kelly heard evidence of multiple breaches of court orders and claims that the boy’s recent involvement in a lengthy high-speed car chase which ended after a crash on the M50.

Today, Judge Kelly, the District Court president, finalised the teen’s case with sentences totalling 11 months, an order for 12 months probation post-release and a two-year driving ban. He must also participate in an educational and training course when he gets out.

The sentence, backdated to account for time already served since bail was revoked, will be served at the Oberstown Children Detention Campus.

One of the drivers, who had a side impact with the garda car, was given a six-month custodial sentence on Tuesday, while a third youth accused of twice ramming the officers’ vehicle is awaiting trial in the Circuit Court, which has broader sentencing powers. Two other boys avoided court prosecution by acceptance into the Garda juvenile youth diversion programme.

In the 15-year-old boy’s case, Detective Garda Michael McNulty told Dublin Children’s Court the teenager had “umpteen chances” over the past 12 months.

He said the boy broke curfew and was spotted in an area where he was banned as a condition of bail.

The garda alleged that on a date in August, the teenager stole a car in Blanchardstown, led gardai on a pursuit to Wicklow and returned to Dublin on the M50 until he crashed, assaulted, and injured a garda.

He also accepted that the teen was injured during that incident, adding, “Yes, he is a danger to everyone”.

The teen was seen in a stolen car a day earlier when he should have been home.

The defence said the teen accepted the breaches occurred, and there was an element of peer pressure. The court heard the boy had a two-year wait to access mental health services, and his parents had engaged with gardai and services.

However, Judge Kelly said that the boy, accompanied to the proceedings by his mother and father, had “every conceivable support over the last 12 months”.

The teen dodged court previously by “refusing to get out of bed” for a previous appearance on May 30, but he turned up two days later to plead guilty to 19 charges.

They involved six separate prosecutions for incidents over nine months in Dublin last year when he was 14.

Two of them were for allowing himself to be a passenger in two stolen cars on September 19, 2022, when the patrol car was rammed three times.

Detective Garda McNulty said that after responding to a report of joyriders, two female gardai were “rammed” by two Toyota Aquas.

The cars were stolen within the previous 48 hours and were driven dangerously on the date of the incident,

“They proceeded to ram the patrol cars three times,” Detective McNulty had said, adding that the boy was a back-seat passenger.

Two of his other charges were criminal damage to a CCTV system and a fire extinguisher at a residential building in Dublin 8.

An incident on August 19 last year led to charges for unlawfully driving a stolen vehicle, having no licence or insurance, failing to produce documents and seven counts of dangerous driving in the Tallaght area.

There were also guilty pleas to being a passenger in a stolen vehicle in the Drimnagh area on May 9, attempted unlawful entry to a motor vehicle in Citywest on April 16, and criminal damage to a car passenger window on June 6 in Tallaght.