A HEROIN addict whose 15- month-old son was found with cuts, bruises and burns while lying in a bedroom that had “evidence of drug use” has been remanded on bail pending sentence.
The 40-year-old woman, the mother of six other children, cannot be named for legal reasons.
The toddler was the youngest of the family and was found with bruises on his body, burns on his fingertips and scalp, cuts to his lips and palms and a swollen knee.
Gardaí and health service workers arrived at the house in Dublin to find it in disarray with dirty nappies lying in the hallway and clothes strewn about. The baby was found on a bed in a sodden nappy with blood around his nose and mouth. He was listless and unresponsive and was lying next to a burnt spoon.
The woman pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to wilfully neglecting the child on December 16th, 2005.
Judge Desmond Hogan heard the woman has supervised access every fortnight to six of her children who are now in foster care.
A social welfare report said the boy was progressing well under the care of his foster mother. When he first went into care, he would take food from the bin, although it was prepared for him; he would wake up screaming during the night, he was clingy and had behavioural problems.
The judge viewed what he described as “harrowing” photographs of the boy’s injuries. “My instant emotive reaction was to impose a custodial sentence immediately,” he said, but added that there were a number of factors that needed to be considered and adjourned the case for reports on all six children. He ordered a probation report in relation to how the mother was dealing with her drug addiction.
“The serious neglect of an infant is a mother’s dereliction of her duty. She was a chronic drug addict . . . living in an abusive and violent relationship,” the judge said, adding that he did not believe she knew what was going on.
Garda Sinéad Connolly told Caroline Biggs, prosecuting, that the woman said she had left the house four weeks previously following “an aggressive incident” with a man who was living there. She refused to return until he moved out and although she had visited regularly, she spent most nights either sleeping in a car or in a friend’s mother’s house.
She told gardaí she was told by the other children that the toddler had fallen down the stairs and that the burns had probably been caused by him touching a radiator. She accepted that she did not bring him to hospital as she should have when she saw the extent of his injuries.
William Galvin, defending, said his client was unable to cope with six children “while she was in the throes of a drug addiction”.
“She was not able to see what was in front of her face.”
She had since started to deal with her drug addiction in order to have more access to her children.
Garda Connolly told Ms Biggs that the man who answered the door to gardaí that day was incoherent and his speech was slurred.
The woman accepted she was in a relationship with this man and that he abused drugs but she insisted he never took drugs in front of the children.
Garda Connolly said she had been impressed by the woman’s progress.