Homeless teen says he is ‘getting nowhere’ while living in Bantry

A YOUNG scaffolder convicted of engaging in offensive words says he has ‘no opportunity of getting on’ in Bantry and has now been left homeless.

‘Unfortunately, the court can’t provide accommodation for him,’ a West Cork judge remarked in the case of the homeless teenager from Bantry.

‘Well, we can,’ Judge James McNulty added, when summing up the case brought by the gardaí against Tom Walker (18) of 10 Seskin Park, Bantry, ‘but he wouldn’t like it.’

Defence solicitor, Flor Murphy, court presenter Sgt Trish O’Sullivan, and Judge McNulty all agreed at Bantry District Court that the accused has a good work ethic, having previously worked for a scaffolding firm. However, he was dismissed and not reinstated when he temporarily walked out of a job, shortly after a friend committed suicide, and out of another after his mother left West Cork for the UK.

On the second occasion, Flor Murphy said Tom had ‘a bit of a breakdown’.

All three agreed that the house that the accused moved into, after his mother left town, is not suitable and the accused admitted the co-inhabitant, is ‘a head wreck.’

Tom Walker was convicted of engaging in offensive words and behaviour at Blackrock Lane on March 17th last, and was ordered to do 100 hours community service in lieu of 60 days imprisonment. A charge of being intoxicated on the same date was marked proven and taken into consideration.

Meanwhile, it was alleged that on the evening of June 17th last, the day the Junior Cert results were announced, Tom refused to comply with a direction given by Gda Theresa Sheridan to leave Wolfe Tone Square.

In his own defence, the accused said the garda might have told him to go home – he couldn’t remember – but he claimed: ‘I wasn’t causing wreck. It was 7.30pm or 8pm in the evening and everyone was drunk and loitering and I was the one charged.’

Judge McNulty noted that the accused was released on bail – in relation to other charges – and was bound by the court to abide by a curfew, and to abstain from using cannabis.

The judge adjourned the case briefly to allow the accused to take a drug test across the road at Bantry Garda Station and, in the afternoon, Sgt O’Sullivan confirmed that the tests came back clear of all substances.

Tom Walker said he was trying to comply with all of the court requirements, and to stay out of trouble. A woman, who had previously provided him with accommodation, gave a character reference. ‘He is a good kid,’ she said. ‘It is boredom that gets him into trouble.’

Tom Walker said: ‘I am getting nowhere living in Bantry. I have no opportunity of getting on because people know who I am.’

Judge McNulty replied saying: ‘People can change.’ But the accused countered with: ‘Yes, but opinions don’t.’

‘I don’t know what the plan is,’ said Tom. ‘I have no job down here. No one will employ me. I have an aunt in Cork. I could start with a fresh slate because there are loads of scaffolding companies in Cork.’

The accused said his father, who lives in Dublin, had taken him in before but it didn’t work out because they are too much alike. Following the intervention of a probation officer, it emerged that the accused not only doesn’t have a place to lay his head, he has no job, and no money either because he lost his birth cert and ID and could not apply for social welfare.

The judge asked the probation officer if she would intercede on his behalf and see if emergency accommodation can be secured through Cork Co Council’s housing department, and he also asked her to look into the possibility of helping him get social welfare.

‘What Tom does in the meantime can only be left up to him,’ said the judge. ‘But as a person, out on bail, he must keep the peace and commit no offence.’