A teenage girl has alleged that her mother, who faces 44 child cruelty charges, showed her how to self-harm “the right way” and provided her with drink and drugs while she was in foster care at the age of 14.
The woman is also alleged to have thrown two of her sons out of her car after they spilled ice cream and then drove towards them, forcing the boys to jump on to a hedge.
The mother (39), who cannot be named to protect the identity of the children, now aged between 19 years and 18 months, has pleaded not guilty to charges which include assault, ill-treatment and abandonment between September 1st, 2006, and May 12th, 2011, contrary to section 246 (1) and (2) of the Children Act 2001.
Shane Costello SC, prosecuting, told the jury at Galway Circuit Criminal Court that after the children were placed with various foster parents in May 2011, they began “to recount a narrative of violence within the family home”.
“They recount there is very little food on occasion and their mother is frequently absent from the family home for days on end,” he said.
Mr Costello said social workers had been involved with the family since 2006, and by 2011 the woman had eight children who became the subject of an emergency care order when social workers called unannounced on May 12th.
The eldest daughter (19), who gave evidence via videolink, said she ran away from home in April 2011, when she was 14, because her mother was so abusive.
Choking
She recalled one incident the day after her mother had returned from a concert and the woman’s partner told her the girl had said a bad word.
“She came into the sitting room, grabbed me by the hair and pulled me out into the kitchen. She grabbed me by the throat and pinned me against the sink and started choking me,” she said.
“She pushed my head into the sink and started filling the sink with water. Three of my younger siblings were there while two of the younger ones ran away in fear,” the girl said.
The girl recalled feeling depressed when, aged 13, she realised “stuff was not right” in her family home. She began to self-harm by cutting herself with but told her mother she had been scratched by a cat.
“She discovered I was self-harming across my wrists and she said to me: ‘You are not doing it the right way. I will f**king show you the right way’ and she grabbed my arm. She took the blade and she cut me,” she said.
“It wasn’t a major cut. She put butterfly stitches on it which she got in the pharmacy. My younger sister was in the room when that happened.”
Alcohol
Mr Costello asked the girl if she had met her mother after leaving home in April 2011 when aged 14 and while the subject of a care order. The girl said she met her a few times when she wanted alcohol, which her mother would provide.
Mr Costello said this occurred when the girl was in care but the process of taking her siblings into care was ongoing.
The girl said her mother took her to a friend’s house where there was a group of people sitting around, drinking and smoking joints. “My mother handed a joint to me,” she said.
At another house she said she was again given a joint and alleged that her mother had speed in her wallet. “She was taking it and I asked her could I have some and she put some in a cigarette wrapper and gave it to me,” she said. “I didn’t know if it was working or not and I asked her for a line of it because she was taking a line and she allowed me take it again.”
The girl recalled being sick in a bathroom a short time later and vomiting. She said her mother came to check her once and they left and went to another man’s house.
During cross-examination, Paul Flannery, SC, defending, said his client would deny the more serious allegations.
He asked her what her relationship with her mother was like when she was a younger child in primary school. “I never really had a relationship with my mum,” the girl replied.
The trial continues.