Mother pleads not guilty to child cruelty and neglect

A 39-year-old mother has gone on trial charged with cruelty towards, and neglect of, eight of her children over a six-year period.

The woman, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the children, who are now aged between 19 and five, pleaded not guilty before Galway Circuit Criminal Court yesterday to 44 charges of child cruelty, including assault, ill-treatment and abandonment between September 1st, 2006, and May 12th, 2011, contrary to section 246 (1) and (2) of the Children Act 2001.

Shane Costelloe, SC, prosecuting, said one of her daughters would give evidence of how her mother caught her self-harming and showed her how to do it properly, while other children would tell of how their mother poured washing-up liquid down their throats to reprimand them.

Strangers present

The children, he said, were taken into care in May 2011 following an unannounced house visit by HSE staff. Social workers, who had been dealing with the family since 2006, were alarmed to find the mother absent from the family home and strangers present, who were in no fit state to look after the children.

After the children were placed with various foster parents, they began “to recount a narrative of violence within the family home”, explaining how their mother had physically abused them, Mr Costelloe said.

“The general assertion the children make is one of deprivation. They are frequently absent from school and one of the older girls in particular is kept at home to mind the toddlers.

‘Struck with belts’

“This is not an allegation of scolding or reprimanding or chastising children, but one of actual serious, physical violence.

The children are struck with belts, a bamboo cane or back-scratcher or off a piece of furniture,” Mr Costelloe said.

Two of the boys would recount how their mother threw them out of her car one day because they had spilled ice- cream in the back seat. They said she then drove the car at them and they had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit.

Mr Costelloe said the mother was subsequently charged with the offences before the court. During Garda interviews, she accepted she had used physical violence on some occasions but she asserted it was not above reasonable chastisement. She denied the other allegations.

The trial continues before Judge Karen O’Connor and is expected to last two weeks.