by Andrew Carey
A TEENAGER who admitted that he stole more than a dozen cars has been released on bail after a judge said there was a delay of “extraordinary proportions” in the Director of Public Prosecutions deciding how the case should proceed.
Judge Marian O’Leary told Gardaí at Limerick District Court that despite the fact that bail was withdrawn from 18-year-old Ronnie Deerman because he breached curfew on 11 occasions, she was releasing him from custody pending the directions of the DPP.
Deerman, with an address at Galtee Avenue in O’Malley Park was charged in connection with the alleged thefts of 15 cars and the criminal damage of another.
The court was told that Deerman admitted to detectives that he was part of a group involved in the thefts. A number of other teenagers are also before the courts.
At a renewed bail application this Tuesday, Judge O’Leary was told by Detective Garda Ger Healy that the State was objecting to the teenager being readmitted to bail after he had spent the last three and half months in custody.
Detective Healy said that the “file was comprehensive and had been submitted to the law officers in Dublin for consideration” in November, but he could not say why there was an “undue delay” and he had “no reason or knowledge for it”.
However, despite the objections of the State, Judge O’Leary said that she would consent to the bail application as “the delay in the case was of extraordinary proportions”.
Deerman was released from custody and ordered to live with his mother and obey a curfew until the court proceedings were dealt with.
The matter was adjourned to February 4 next for the DPP’s directions.
