A man who beat his 4½-year-old nephew with a belt and failed to seek medical attention for him when he suffered seizures has been jailed for three years by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
When the child's mother was summoned in the early hours of the morning he was found to have "well in excess" of 35-40 bruises on his body and had twice suffered serious seizures.
Her son had been in her brother's care for more than two weeks and his mother, who had been expecting him back a few days previously had been told she could not have him back just yet because he was on holiday in Mosney.
She found him on his uncle's bed having a fit. He was "shaking like a leaf", he was "cold as ice" and he was "foaming at the mouth."
Medical examinations revealed that he had also suffered brain injuries, which has led to him currently experiencing learning difficulties. The brain injuries, caused from a blood clot, could not, however, be directly attributed to the injuries he had suffered at the hands of his uncle.
He was also found to have bleeding in the back of his eye and the skin between two fingers of his right hand was peeling as if he had been scalded. James McGreevy-Simpson (27), of Tymonville Road, Tallaght, pleaded guilty to three counts of assault causing harm to the boy and to two counts of wilful neglect of his now eight-year-old nephew between August 5th and 30th, 2000.
His wife, Melanie Simpson (28), who pleaded guilty to wilful neglect of the boy between the same dates, received an order to serve 240 hours of community service.
Judge Desmond Hogan said he rejected a suggestion in mitigation by defence counsel that McGreevy-Simpson had been given "a mandate to discipline" the boy.
"You do not need a parenting course, at this day and age, to know that you don't use a strap on a child of 4½," he told McGreevy-Simpson, who has since enrolled in such a course with Jobstown Family Centre to try to regain custody of his own son, who has been taken into care.
Judge Hogan also criticised Melanie Simpson, whom he said had played a more "passive" role in abusing the boy but whom he described as being more concerned about what neighbours might think rather than to the boy's welfare. He said she failed to call an ambulance when the boy was having seizures and then, when the child's mother called for one after finding her son writhing on her brother's bed, Melanie Simpson had called out to the approaching ambulance to dim its lights to avoid attracting neighbours' attention.
Det Garda John Stack told prosecuting counsel Ms Orla Crowe that the Simpsons had volunteered to take care of the boy for two weeks to give his mother a break.
The boy's mother had four young children, aged from six to one year of age as well as two children aged nine and 12 that she also took care of. The seriousness of the boy's plight was finally realised when McGreevey-Simpson arrived at his sister's home at 1.30 a.m. on August 30th and said her son was having another seizure.
She asked him to call an ambulance and he told her there was no need. She called one herself and the boy was taken to Tallaght Hospital. He was later transferred to Temple Street Hospital and after the discovery of the extensive injuries, was taken to Beaumont Hospital.
Det Garda Stack said McGreevy-Simpson had been a heroin addict at the time, though he had since addressed the problem and was on a rehabilitation programme. McGreevy-Simpson had also claimed he suspected the boy of having hidden €120 and had beaten him with the belt to get him to return the money.
He told gardaí he hit him a second time with the belt when he blew up a bouncing castle to three or four times its original size. There were other occasions when he said he gave him "a clip around the head" for misbehaving. Mr Feargal Kavanagh SC, for McGreevy-Simpson, said his client was guilty of "disciplining the child in a heavy-handed manner".
He said McGreevy-Simpson had himself been a victim of physical abuse by his father and had tried to discipline the boy in the way he knew.