LAST UPDATE | 29 Apr

A 17-YEAR-OLD boy has been sentenced to eight years in detention for the attempted murder of an Irish army chaplain last year.

Fr Paul Murphy was stabbed seven times with a hunting knife while attempting to drive into Renmore Barracks in Galway at around 10.35pm on 15 August.

The teenager, who cannot be identified because of his age, pleaded guilty to attempted murder earlier this year at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.

Children under the age of 18 cannot be sent to prison; if a period of detention is handed down the child is held in a detention school or a detention centre.

If the period of detention extends beyond the child turning 18, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs can authorise the transfer to a place of detention or prison.

Today, Mr Justice Paul McDermott sentenced the teenager to 10 years in detention with the final two suspended on condition he engage with deradicalisation and educational programmes.

Justice McDermott ordered that the boy be supervised for three years after his release.

Speaking after the teenager’s sentencing today, Father Murphy told reporters that he hopes the boy will be fully rehabilitated and make a full “return to society”.

“I think that it’s very easy to fight hatred with hatred, the world just becomes entrenched in hatred. And that’s the way the world is at the moment,” he said.

“St John says that God is love, and if we believe God to be love then we know that love is stronger than hate.

“This young boy is going to prison for a few years. My own hope is that he’ll return to society better able to manage his own life, and also to make a more positive contribution to society,” he added.

During the sentencing, Justice McDermott told Central Criminal Court that if the boy were an adult, without other acting circumstances, the crime could attract a sentence of up to 25 years.

On the day of the attack, the court heard that the boy had visited the gym before cycling a short distance to the barracks in Galway.

He then concealed himself before the attack.

When the attack occurred, the boy did not respond to shouts from Father Murphy and others to stop, and ingored five warning shots fired by Defence Force members.

The court heard that he was determined to “complete his mission” until he was eventually subdued by a soldier.

The boy had previously had intrusive thoughts of killing an Irish soldier, the court heard.

Justice McDermott said that it was clear that the boy’s actions showed he had an intention to kill a member of the Defence Forces.

He said that the boy’s limited knowledge had meant that he was not mature enough to understand the “twisted perspectives” of radical online content. His autism exacerbated his vulnerabilites, McDermott said.

Individuals who contacted the defendant developed in him a “warped view” of Irish activity in Mali and prompted him to seek revenge against any member of the Defence Forces. He had been exposed to media footage of the “most grotesque kind”, the judge noted.

The boy had been influenced by radical Islamist online content, the court heard, including content produced by radical groups in support of ISIS.

He said the teenager was intelligent, had no previous convictions, and had “an obsessive personality” and was “drawn into a world” of “extremist views” online.

He warned that young people can become “easy prey” for extreme content online, which had been seen in other court cases.

The boy has since fully engaged with councelling.

Father Murphy, a native of Waterford who lived at the barracks, has been an army chaplain since 2013 and has completed five overseas placements with the Defence Forces in Syria and Lebanon.

He told reporters after the sentencing that his focus now will be on preparing for an international military pilgrimage in Lourdes next month.

Father Murphy added that three days after the pilgrimage, he will once again travel to Lebanon, where he will work for six months.

- With reporting by Rónán Duffy and Press Association