Teenager pleads guilty to wrong-way driving on M50

A teenage friend of youths who died in the fatal M9 crash has pleaded guilty to driving on the wrong side of the M50 in Dublin after he led gardaí on a high-speed pursuit.

At the Dublin Children's Court, the 17-year-old pleaded guilty to charges of endangerment of life and motor theft arising from an unconnected joyriding incident on the night of 18 May last.

He cannot be named because he is a juvenile.

Defence counsel Noah Rossiter said the deaths of the five youths after travelling and colliding on the wrong side of the M9 in Kildare last month prompted a change in the boy's behaviour.

Three adult sisters and a seven-year-old boy in the other oncoming vehicle were either critically or seriously injured in that collision in the early hours of 16 August.