The State has no secure special care space for a teenage girl threatened with being shot if she doesn’t co-operate with a drug gang that has set out to exploit her, a High Court Judge was told onTuesday.

Mr Justice Oisín Quinn said he was concerned that while there were 26 special care beds in the country only 15 were currently staffed and none was available for the 16-year-old girl whose life had been threatened.

Barrister Paul Gunning told Mr Justice Quinn that while the girl required “civil detention” for her own health and safety in a secure special care unit, the Child Family Agency would be powerless to abide by any court detention order because of the lack of staffed beds.

“There are only 15 staffed beds in two special care units in Dublin and one in Limerick yet there is no bed available for this child,” Mr Gunning said.

Mr Justice Quinn heard that the teenager, who cannot be identified by court order, was currently in the care of a non-secure private residential agency where the manager had no authority to restrain her from leaving, should she wish, while adult drug dealers seeking to exploit her have called to collect her in cars.

Mr Gunning, who appeared for the Child Family Agency, said gardaí were unable to investigate, detain and prosecute the male adult exploiters involved as they required voluntary statements from her and she was living in constant fear of being killed.

Mr Justice Quinn said he was deeply concerned to learn of threats made to the girl.

The judge heard there was a risk of the girl absconding from where she currently resides and there had been previous attempts by her to abscond. On one occasion when she was being driven in a car on a motorway, another car with five males in it had driven alongside the vehicle and the men shouted threats at her.

“Even if the special care detention order is made the Child Family Agency will not be able to comply with it,” Mr Justice Quinn said.

He said he intended to make an order empowering gardaí, in the event of her absconding and being in the company of inappropriate people, to search for, detain and return her to the place where she is currently residing. The court could only hope that a staffed bed in one of the three secure units would quickly be made available for her.

He made that order and, after requests from counsel for thr girl’s guardian ad litem and, separately, for the girl’s mother, an additional direction empowering gardaí to search for the girl and return her to her current residence in the event of her absconding. He returned the proceedings to May 1st.