Fundraising proposal indefibrillator vandal report

A youth conference report produced for a boy who damaged a defibrillator in a Waterside shop in August suggested he might be ordered to carry out fundraising as part of his rehabilitation in order to install similar life-saving equipment at another facility in the city, Derry Youth Court heard on Tuesday.

Defence barrister Nicola Rountree told the court how District Judge Harry McKibbin had ordered the report in respect of the criminal damage charge due to the seriousness of the offence.

A PPS solicitor explained that the boy was also charged with several other offences predating the defibrillator damage. He said the boy was also charged with disorderly behaviour, resisting a police constable and causing damage to a cell van in Limavady on two separate dates in June of this year. Ms Rountree told the court how a youth conference report had also been ordered for December for further disorderly behaviour and assault on police charges relating to separate incidents in April and July.

District Judge Barney McElholm referring to the report on the defibrillator offence noted how it cited a former Met police officer’s involvement in fundraising efforts for a new device for the shop. He suggested such a course might be an option for the boy.

“This could have been considered,” he said. “It may have been rejected as unadvisable given his various problems.”

He put back all of the matters to December 6.