Suspended sentence for neglect of seven children

A four-year jail term has been imposed on a woman for what the judge described as the “unnatural crime” of neglecting her own children. However, at Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Carroll Moran yesterday suspended the jail term for seven years on certain conditions.

Judge Moran said the woman (38) “had deprived her children of a childhood which will have long-lasting consequences for them”.

In the case, the woman’s eldest child – now aged 17 – described in the witness box her mother as “vermin” and how she was “cruel and evil”.

The girl, when was aged eight, was forced to act as a surrogate mother to her newborn sister after the baby was abandoned by their mother.

Judge Moran said: “There was nothing to change nappies, to make bottles, to sleep the baby – no explanation was given to the other child as to what she should do.”

The woman pleaded guilty to the neglect and ill-treatment of the five girls and two boys at different periods, from March 2001 to July 2010.

The children are today aged between 17 and four.

Alcoholic behaviour

In sentencing, Judge Moran described how the woman had abandoned her children while spending long periods in a pub with her now former partner and father of six of the seven children, indulging themselves in bouts of alcoholic behaviour.

“As a result of this drinking, there was insufficient food in the house and sometimes no food at all. The children were left for long periods, alone and without food.

“An aggravation of this was that there was a fridge and freezer in a shed at the back of the house, which was kept locked and meant the children were denied access.”

All of the children are currently in care.

Judge Moran said that when the four youngest were placed in foster care, “their foster mother said that they were very frightened, dirty, malnourished children. They did not know how to eat at the table, didn’t know how to use cutlery and were not toilet-trained.”

Opting not to jail the woman, Judge Moran said as part of the suspended sentence, the woman has agreed to abstain from alcohol and co-operate with the Probation Service and HSE.

The woman’s former partner has also pleaded guilty to neglect of the seven children and is to be sentenced at a later date.