Early yesterday evening, five young offenders managed to escape from Oberstown detention centre in North County Dublin.
According to Balbriggan Gardaí, the youths – aged between 14 and 18 – scaled a fence at the facility before fleeing into nearby fields shortly after 6pm on Saturday evening.
Local Gardaí, the Garda air support unit and dog unit were dispatched to the area to help in the search for the five runaways.
Oberstown Director Pat Bergin confirmed that neighbours of the centre, which provides secure accommodation for young offenders between the ages of 10 and 17, were informed after the incident took place.
Three of the runaways were apprehended and returned to the Lusk centre shortly after, while another was discovered at around 9pm and the fifth was apprehended shortly before 11pm last night.
Worryingly, this is not the first incident to occur at the County Dublin detention centre, and as recent as May of this year, staffed planned strike actions over safety concerns at the centre.
Health watchdog HIQA (Health Information and Quality Authority) found that the centre failed to meet nine out of the 10 standards by which it was evaluated in June of this year, where one of the more serious incidents investigated was when a young boy was placed in ‘single separation’ for a period of 27 hours over the course of three days.
