Probation for woman who rubbed dog faeces in child’s face

A mother who rubbed dog faeces on the face of her young daughter and pushed her down a stairs during a five-year period of neglect has been placed on a probation bond.

Garda Donna Egan told the child cruelty case at Ennis District Court of the offences committed by the woman (37) against her daughter - who is now in care - while she was aged between five an 10.

The woman pleaded guilty to the neglect of her daughter in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering to the child’s health and affect her well-being between February 23rd 2005 and June 30th 2010.

In one incident, Garda Egan said that the girl recalled a dog soiling the kitchen floor and being told to clean up the mess by her mother. “In the course of this some of the dog dirt on the tissue was rubbed on the child’s face by her mother.”

Garda Egan said the girl also recalled her mother pushing her down a stairs and throwing a mug at her, striking her on the head. The court also heard that the girl recalled how after refusing to tidy her bedroom, her mother put her into a bath and turned on the hot water tap as punishment.

None of the incidents left the girl requiring medical treatment, Garda Egan said, adding that the case was a “heartbreaking” one.

Insp Tom Kennedy said the DPP recommended the case be dealt with in the district court, where a maximum sentence of 12 months applied to the cruelty charge.

Judge Patrick Durcan said he would go along with a recommendations of a Probation Report that the woman be placed on a Probation Bond for 12 months on condition that she co-operate fully with the Probation Service, the Child and Family Agency and any other agency.

He said that the woman “behaved in a way towards her child which was neglectful in extreme, damaging in the extreme and which was very depriving of what any child should have when they are growing up”.

Garda Egan said it was the mother who came forward in 2012 to gardaí to reveal the extent of the neglect.

Judge Durcan said it was an unusual case where “the defendant came from bad place and had a bad childhood”. He said the woman had admitted responsibility and co-operated with Garda Egan and all relevant services.

“You are being released by this court today on condition that you co-operate fully with the service,” he told the woman. “If there is any breach of that, that matter will be brought back before me and I will have no hesitation in dealing with this a different way.”