A Somali youth is to face questioning by the police after a Ukrainian teenager was killed in a frenzied knife attack on his head, eyes and chest at an Irish refugee centre.
Vadym Davydenko, 17, was stabbed to death with a kitchen knife at emergency accommodation provided by the Irish Child and Family Agency (Tusla), in north Dublin on Wednesday morning.
He had only been in Ireland for four days before his death at the centre in the Grattan Wood apartment complex in Donaghmede.
He had been due to be transferred to accommodation for Ukrainians.
A female staff member who tried to intervene and stop the fight was also hospitalised with defensive wounds.
A Somali teen, currently under medical supervision in a Dublin hospital, is a person of interest in the case.
His injuries are non-life-threatening, according to Gardaí.
The Somali was one of four teens in the accommodation, along with Vadym.
Gardai continue their investigations at an apartment block in Grattan Wood, Donaghmede, Dublin where a teenage Ukranian boy was fatally injured in an incident on October 15
The accommodation is for teenagers who arrived in Ireland unaccompanied by adults.
Vadym is understood to have left war-torn Ukraine for Ireland to try and get a better life and education.
A Garda source told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘It will be a number of days before the investigating gardaí can talk to the suspect to try and piece together why this happened because he’s going to be under medical supervision for a while.
‘He can’t be questioned in that state.’
Vadym was severely injured during the fatal incident that occurred at around 11.00am local time Wednesday and emergency services pronounced him dead at the scene.
His body was removed on at approximately 5.30pm before a post-mortem began late that morning.
A spokesperson for the Ukrainian Embassy told the Mail that it is in contact with Vadym’s family and that his body will be repatriated to Ukraine after physical investigations have concluded.
The embassy was informed by Tusla of Vadym’s death.
‘We express our deepest condolences to Vadym’s family and loved ones during this time of profound grief,’ a spokesperson said.
‘The embassy is in close contact with An Garda Síochána, who are currently investigating the circumstances of the incident. We are also in regular contact with Vadym’s family.
‘The results of the investigation will be shared with both the family and the embassy once available.
‘We are providing consular assistance to the family and are making the necessary arrangements for the repatriation of Vadym’s body to Ukraine.’
A Ukrainian Facebook user who claims to have a daughter in the same class as Vadym posted a photo of a young man, alleging €8,000 is needed to bring him back to Ukraine. An online fundraiser with the same goal appears to have raised over €1,300.
Tusla interim service director Lorna Kavanagh told the Oireachtas Justice Committee on Tuesday that the agency has space for 400 children in residential centres and the remaining 150 or so minors are cared for by agency staff in rented property, such as that in Donaghmede.
Ukraine was the most common country of origin for unaccompanied minors arriving in Ireland, the committee was told, followed by Somalia and Afghanistan.
Hours after the attack, residents of the Grattan Woods apartment complex told the Mail they weren’t aware of the centre’s existence until they heard the news of the stabbing.
‘We didn’t know about it, but I did notice there were more young men coming and going of different nationalities recently,’ one elderly woman said.
The chief executive of Children’s Rights Alliance (CRA), Tanya Ward, stated that an independent review is urgently needed into the circumstances of Vadym’s death.
Ms Ward is the chair of an independent review of over 40,000 Tusla cases that were closed during the pandemic and previously served as an expert on an investigation on the management of child abuse allegations by Tusla.
‘This is really devastating and distressing news. At the heart of this is a 17-year old boy who was in Ireland on his own,’ she said.
‘We extend our deepest sympathies to his family and friends.’
‘It is vitally important that the next step is an independent review by the National Review Panel to establish the circumstances of the death and whether there was any possibility to prevent it from happening.’
Donaghmede councillor Micheál MacDonncha, of Sinn Féin, told the Mail: ‘It’s essential Tusla enquire how this happened and if the place was resourced adequately.
‘It raises concerns that a private company was involved in the running of this centre. Regardless of the status of those living there in terms of nationality, what’s more important is that they were juveniles.
‘There have been legitimate concerns about Tusla for years, but ultimate responsibility goes back to the Government because their policy of privatisation often leads to inadequate care.’
Vadym was one of four separated children seeking international protection, or SCSIPs, being housed in the apartment.
The accommodation was contracted by Tusla as a special emergency arrangement (SEA).
The use of such emergency accommodation for vulnerable children has been criticised because they are unregulated, staffed by private providers, and not inspected by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa).
A Hiqa spokeswoman, asked whether it had inspected the Donaghmede facility, told the Irish Times: ‘This service does not fall within the remit of the Health Information and Quality Authority.
‘Children’s residential centres run by voluntary or private organisations commissioned by Tusla are not within Hiqa’s remit, nor are special emergency arrangements.’
The report quoted a source close to Vadym, who said he was ‘quite into sport’ and was ‘studying IT, he wanted to move on to cybersecurity and, with everything happening in Ukraine, to support the military against the Russian aggression … to [go back] and fight on the frontline lines in a cyberdivision’.
He had a girlfriend in Ukraine who was hoping to visit him in Ireland, and is understood to be ‘devastated’ following the news of his death.
Tusla said it could ‘confirm that a serious incident took place at one of our emergency residential units in North Dublin, which is staffed on a 24-hour basis to provide care to four separated young people seeking international protection’.
The incident involved ‘two young people, during which a fatal injury was sustained’.
Gardaí have also confirmed that they are not looking for any other person in relation to the attack and investigators are following ‘a definite line of enquiry’.
The other juveniles and staff who were in the apartment complex have been transferred to alternative accommodation.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .