Gardaí feared blonde Roma child was ‘flight risk’

Gardaí objected to a Roma child being returned to her family following concerns over her identity and because they feared she was a “flight risk”.

Details of the case - which attracted headlines earlier this year - are contained in the latest report of the Child Law Reporting Project.

The child was later returned to her family after DNA tests proved she was biologically related to her parents.

The report states that concerns over the child’s identity were made to gardai by an Estonian woman, who reported that a local Roma family had a girl with blond hair and blue eyes.

A Garda told the District Court that the child appeared to be registered under two different names in official documents.

When gardai called to the family house, they said there was no documentation available.

A Garda said the hospital where her parents said she was born did not have a record of her birth, though later checks showed they did have records.

A Garda told the court that he also spoke to a consultant at a children’s hospital who said it would be “highly unlikely” that a child of Roma ethnicity would have blond hair and blue eyes.

“Based on the striking difference of the child to her siblings and her parents, to the fact that the family could provide no documentation, to the fact she was more comfortable using a different name, based on those facts I believed I had a serious concern as to whether [THE GIRL]was of the family,” a Garda told the court.

“I further considered the case in relation to the immediacy of the matter in that if the child was not of te family, there would be a flight risk and the child would be removed from the family.”

The circumstances of the Garda and social services’ handling of the case, and a similar case in the midlands, are currently being investigated by the Ombudsman for Children Emily Logan.

The child care law project was established last year to examine and report on childcare proceedings which are typically held in private.

The case is one of a number published today as part of the Child Care Law Reporting Project. This is the fourth volume of cases to be published.

Directed by Dr Carol Coulter, the project receives funding from the Department of Children and Yoth Affairs, as well as philantropic funding from Atlantic Philantropies and the One Foundation.

The themes of alcohol and drug abuse feature prominently in the latest volume of cases, as do conflicts between parents and the HSE over matters like access.

Emotional abuse and how parenting capacity is assessed are also key themes, along with reviews of existing orders where the courts examine certain aspects of the care being given the children in question.