A mother hit her young son on the head and body with a cricket bat when he didn’t tidy up his bedroom, a court has has been told.
At a Family Law Court sitting in a provincial town on Friday, Judge Fiona Lydon granted an emergency care order to Tusla, the Child and Family Agency (CFA) for the boy.
The judge said the seven-day emergency care order “was warranted in all of the circumstances” for the primary school-going child.
Tusla made the application after gardaí invoked emergency powers following an incident involving the boy on Thursday.
In uncontested evidence, a Garda said she called to the boy’s mother’s home on Thursday to let her know her son had been involved in an incident earlier that day where there were fears for his safety.
The female Garda told the court: “We explained why we were there and she didn’t seem to care to be honest with you. I told her that her son was in an ambulance and that he was freaking out and needs his Mum.”
The Garda said that the mother replied “well, there is nothing wrong with him. I have other things to be doing”. The Garda told the court: “She basically refused to come with us.”
The Garda brought the boy to a nearby hospital for him to under go a general check up.
“He is a nice little boy and if he was given time with a family to look after him he would be fine. I felt sorry for him,” she said.
Physical abuse
The boy’s social worker also gave evidence and revealed the boy was previously the subject of emergency powers in February “due to the issue of physical abuse and mother neglecting the needs of the child”.
The social worker met with the boy in hospital on Thursday “and he recounted a number of incidents where he was hit by his mother”.
The social worker said last Monday “after school, his mother was angry he hadn’t done his chores — hoovering and tidying his room. He told me that she took a cricket bat and hit him on his left elbow, his left shoulder, on the back and on the top of the head with the cricket bat”.
The social worker said she asked the mother about the alleged assault and the mother denied hitting him, and said her son was lying.
The social worker said a hospital doctor examined the boy’s head but found no marks or anything usual. The social worker said: “The boy said that it hurt at the time.”
The social worker said on another morning this week, the boy said his mother deliberately broke a toy he had been given by his foster carer.
She said another social worker spoke to the mother about the alleged cricket bat assault on Monday and the mother’s reply was “some secrets should be kept”.
The social worker said the boy’s mother was told about the court proceedings but said she had the flu and would not be attending.
The social worker said the boy is now back with the foster carer he was with in February and is happy there.
“He had a very good evening there yesterday, slept well and went to school happy today,” she said.