Court hears Donegal mother glued children’s wounds

A woman used glue to stop a bleeding wound on one of her children and starved the others, a court in Co Donegal has heard.

The horrific evidence was given by a social worker in the case of a Co Donegal man charged with assault.

Daniel ‘Skippy’ McLaughlin appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court charged with assault causing harm to a friend.

Mr McLaughlin, from Glentogher, Carndonagh, had an “horrific” childhood, social worker Janice Arthurs said in evidence to Judge Francis Comerford.

Garda Declan Lambe told the court how he was called to reports of a disturbance at Miller’s Way in Carndonagh on September 30th, 2011. Mr McLaughlin’s friend Andrew Drury had earlier made a 999 call.

Garda Lambe entered the house and found Mr Drury sitting on the stairs, directing him to the kitchen.

He said Mr McLaughlin was in an agitated state and covered in blood and demanding to know if there was a search warrant.

The garda said he entered the kitchen and saw a large bread knife covered in blood. He looked down and saw Brian McLaughlin Logue lying on the floor covered in blood. The stab victim was rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries but after several weeks went on to make a full recovery.

When interviewed, Daniel McLaughlin said he didn’t remember what had happened. “I must have flipped, I went clean mental,” he told gardaí.

He remembered a fight on the street outside but not the stabbing. “Why that happened I don’t know; I went bananas, I went nuts,” he said.

The garda said the two men had since settled their differences and Daniel McLaughlin was now a changed man who had not been in trouble with gardai since then.

Mr McLaughlin’s brother Enda made international headlines last year when he stabbed three people in Germany before being struck and killed while crossing a motorway.

Ms Arthurs told the court the McLaughlin children had been subjected to “physical abuse and torture by their mother when they were young”.

Their father Patrick, who was away working in Dublin most of the time, had not been aware of the situation at home, said the social worker.

Elizabeth McLaughlin, who died in a house fire in 2010, would pick on another sibling Jonathan.

“She once used Evo-Stik glue to stop bleeding from a wound,” said Ms Arthurs. “She deliberately didn’t feed him; she starved him. And she punished Daniel when he tried to feed his brother.”

Ms Arthurs said Daniel McLaughlin is very remorseful for stabbing his friend.

“He has tried to turn things around. He has stopped drink and drugs and is receiving treatment at a mental health unit. All the children have struggled with adult life because of what went on in their childhood,” she said.

Defence barrister Peter Nolan said the case was “tragic” but his client had not been in trouble since, and was working with all those who would help him. He was also undergoing radical new treatment to tackle his addictions.

After listening to the case Judge Francis Comerford said it had been a horrible assault. However he wanted to monitor Daniel McLaughlin further and agreed to delay passing sentence until January 2016.

He ordered McLaughlin to continue undergoing new methods of treatment and to stay away from alcohol and drugs.