Two 16-year-old boys walked up to a house in Ardleigh Park, Mullingar, in broad daylight, their faces hidden behind snoods.
asserted
faces → walk → snoods
CCTV shows one assembling a homemade shotgun as they approach.
asserted
they → show → shotgun
The other appears to be filming.
asserted
other → appear → ?
One fired at the front door before they ran off.
asserted
they → fire → door
This week, the pair, now 17 and legally protected from being named, stood in the dock at Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court.
asserted
pair → protect → Court
One admitted arson and criminal damage at seven properties across Westmeath, Offaly and Longford, including the torching of four cars.
asserted
One → admit → cars
The court heard that each house had been targeted over drug debts.
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house → hear → debts
Other charges included possession of a blank-firing handgun, blank rounds and €7,000 of cannabis.
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charges → include → cannabis
Both boys told the court they owed money to dealers and had been forced to take part in the shooting.
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they → tell → shooting
The teenager behind the arson campaign told gardaí he was afraid to speak out because he believed he would end up dead.
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he → tell → gardaí
‘It was them or me,’ he had told gardaí at the time of his arrest.
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he → tell → arrest
The victims described a different kind of terror.
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victims → describe → terror
One woman feared for her baby’s life, another was left living in dread.
asserted
another → fear → dread
Some families had to live with boarded-up windows until they could afford replacements.
uncertain
they → have → replacements
Presiding over the case, Judge Keenan Johnson called the incidents ‘really shocking and very, very disturbing’.
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Johnson → preside → incidents
He saved his anger for the adults behind them: the ‘malignant forces’ who ‘prey on children like the accused, plying them with drugs, building debts, to manipulate them to act as their foot soldiers’.
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who → save → soldiers
‘The lowest of the low,’ he called the adults who had coerced these children into crime.
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who → call → crime
The case reminded him of Dickens’s Fagin and his team of child offenders.
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case → remind → offenders
The teenager who fired the shotgun was ordered into custody until December, after which he will have a three-year sentence suspended for five years.
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sentence → fire → years
His co-accused, who faced the bulk of the charges, received a six-year suspended sentence and must pay €14,500 to his victims by June 2027.
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who → face → June
Both were ordered to do community service.
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Both → order → service
The judge noted their remorse, and the pressure that led to them being ‘preyed upon by sinister forces’.
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them → note → forces
So how does a 16-year-old with no previous convictions end up outside a stranger’s house with a shotgun?
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old → end → shotgun
A teenager with no offending background is attractive because he is not yet known to the authorities.
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he → offend → authorities
Others are drawn in because they want to belong.
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they → draw → ?
Dr Seán Redmond is an Adjunct Professor of Youth Justice at the University of Limerick and principal investigator for the Greentown Project, a partnership between the Department of Justice and UL, established to develop an evidence-informed programme capable of dealing with child grooming for crime by coercive criminalised adults.
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Redmond → establish → adults
It provides intensive family support, pro-social opportunities, works to increase community efficacy, and disrupt the criminal network so that children and their families can find the provided support.
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children → provide → support
He says some networks look for young people who need some kind of affiliation.
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who → say → affiliation
It can start with something as small as friendship, acceptance or free drugs, and end in debt, threats and crime.
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It → start → debt
It does not always begin with the child’s own drug use, Dr Redmond says.
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Redmond → begin → use
Drugs may be supplied on credit, or handed out to draw a teenager in.
uncertain
Drugs → supply → teenager
A relative’s debt can be passed down.
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debt → pass → ?
A teenager who forfeits drugs to the gardaí can be held responsible for their value.
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who → forfeit → value
‘They’re relationships that are leveraged by debt and by threat,’ he says.
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he → ’re → threat
Siobhan Maher, National Project Coordinator of DRIVE, the Drug Related Intimidation and Violence Engagement network, sees what happens next.
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what → see → DRIVE
‘What can be particularly frightening about this is how quickly a relatively small debt can escalate,’ she says.
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she → escalate → this
The demand for repayment arrives by message.
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demand → arrive → message
The young person usually believes the sum is manageable.
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sum → believe → ?
‘When that young person can’t pay, the tone of those messages tends to change, and then threats begin.’
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threats → pay → messages
Then the child is put to work.
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child → put → ?
…and 74 more, not listed.
The Aporia
