Date: 16 May 2002
The applicant, D.G., is an Irish national born on 9 July 1980. At the relevant time he was a minor, with a criminal history, who was considered to have a personality disorder and to be a danger to himself and others. On 14 March 1997 it was decided that he should be placed in a high-support therapeutic unit for 16 to 18-year-olds.
On 27 June 1997 the High Court decided that, as there were no secure educational facilities available in Ireland, D.G. should be detained for three weeks in St. Patrick’s Institution (a prison in Ireland), as the “least offensive” of the various “inappropriate” options available. In the meantime efforts were to be made to find a suitable placement for him.
The High Court’s order was renewed on the same basis on 18 July 1997. The third order (of 23 July 1997) prolonged D.G.’s detention on the ground that temporary “accommodation and care” facilities were being prepared and would be ready by 28 July 1997. After D.G. absconded from the facilities in question, the High Court ordered his further detention in St. Patrick’s in August 1997. D.G. was then moved to temporary accommodation. By 16 February 1998, he had been allocated short-term accommodation with 24-hour supervision.
The applicant complained that his detention in St Patrick’s, from 27 June to 28 July 1997, was in breach of Article 5 § 1 of the Convention. He further claimed, under Article 5 § 5, that he had no enforceable right to compensation.
Under Article 3, he complained that, although he was a minor in need of special care, he was detained in a penal institution, that his unique status (as someone not charged or convicted) meant other detainees believed he was a serious sexual offender, leading to his being insulted, humiliated, threatened and abused and that he was hand-cuffed to a prison officer each time he was brought before the courts. He also relied on Articles 8 and 14.
Citation: D.G. v Ireland (App no 39474/98) ECHR 16 May 2002
(from the official press-release prepared by the Registry Office of the European Court of Human Rights)
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