A JUDGE has found the facts proven but imposed no sentence in the “tragic and sad case” of a young mother with a “massive inability to cope” who neglected her sick five-year-old son to such an extent that he was malnourished and unable to walk when taken into care by gardaí.
The case came to light when social workers reported their concerns to gardaí after the woman presented with the sick child at a local health care clinic but failed to bring him to a doctor or to hospital as advised.
The 25-year-old mother-of-one, who can not be named to protect the child’s identity, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to wilful neglect of her son at her home on September 20th, 2006.
Defence counsel, Seán Guerin, said the case was “tragic from beginning to end” and stemmed from the mother’s “massive inability to cope with her child”. He submitted that “the trauma of imprisonment” would do nothing for society or for her rehabilitation.
Judge Patrick McCartan said it was “heartening” to hear that the case “has come to a good end” with the child now doing well with a foster family and “maintaining a regard for his mother” who can avail of one hour weekly visits with him.
He said the incident had arisen “out of isolation and an inability to cope” following the woman’s departure from her family home after a falling out with her parents. The father of the child has expressed no interest in a relationship with him.
Judge McCartan said he found the facts proven in the case but was imposing no sentence.
Garda Karen Anderson told Karen O’Connor, prosecuting, that the woman brought her son to a local health care centre where a dental surgeon who examined him found he had swollen gums and jaws, a gash on his head and looked “green and unwell”. Garda Anderson said the woman was advised to bring the child to a doctor or to hospital because he was in need of immediate attention. Staff informed social workers of their concerns and the following day they went to the woman’s house to escort the child to see a doctor but found no one at home.
Gardaí were contacted later when the woman stopped answering social workers’ calls.
Garda Anderson said she went to the house at 8pm and found the child in the bath. He was very pale and thin with red marks on his chest and a gash on his head.
She asked the child to get out of the bath but he was unable to walk so gardaí carried him to a bedroom where they dressed him and took him into care. His mother was arrested.
Garda Anderson said the child was examined by a doctor who found he was malnourished, underweight and hungry with a rash on his body and sore feet. He had signs of muscle wasting in his upper limbs.
Mr Guerin said the woman had become pregnant as a Leaving Certificate student. She had felt “isolated and alone”, and had lost her job and left the family home after an “irretrievable breakdown” in relations with her parents. Her attitude to the child went from “hyper anxiety” to “a pattern of diminishing concern”. She had been hospitalised in 2005 after taking an overdose.