If a troubled and out-of-control boy had received the counselling he clearly needed at the age of seven when he lost his mother in a road tragedy, he would not be in the situation he was in today, the High Court was told yesterday. The boy's aunt said the Eastern Health Board had failed the child and his siblings when they most needed help.
Ms Carmel Stewart, for the board, said the boy had been involved in serious assaults on female and male staff in an EHB unit, including an incident where he head-butted a female staff member some 12 times. The unit wanted him moved, in order to safeguard staff and children.
The boy's aunt said that after his mother's death, the board had arranged for just four hours' - one hour a week - counselling for the child, who was very close to his mother, and had said he was OK. His parents were separated and after his mother's death the boy had lived with his aunt for some years.
She said the child had "cried, no howled" at night but nothing was done for him.
The aunt had asked to be heard by Mr Justice Kelly when the judge was dealing with an application by the EHB to move the boy from a high-support to a secure unit. Opposing the proposed move, Mr Cormac Corrigan SC, for the child, agreed the incidents outlined were serious but said it was the view of the child's guardian ad litem that the boy should remain in the high-support unit, with additional staff to monitor him and with counselling. He threatened to take his own life if moved.
Mr Justice Kelly said the boy was clearly in need of help and came from a situation of considerable unhappiness. He had particular needs and that was why he had been sent to a high-support unit.
His violent behaviour suggested it was unreasonable for the unit to put up with the boy and while the secure unit where the board sought to send him was not ideal, it was more appropriate. Mr Justice Kelly ordered that the boy be sent to the secure unit and that a full assessment of his needs, to be carried out by a child psychiatrist and psychologist, should be completed within four weeks. The judge said he would review the matter on the basis of that report on March 27th.
On the boy's threat to kill himself if moved, the judge said he was drawing that to the authorities' attention so they could take steps to monitor him.