Report into child-care facility reveals injuries to children

A report into the controversial child-care unit, Newtown House in Co Wicklow, today revealed a number of injuries to children…

A report into the controversial child-care unit, Newtown House in Co Wicklow, today revealed a number of injuries to children resident at the unit and an inadequate provision of services and care.

Received with "serious concern" today by Minister for Children, Ms Mary Hanafin, the report stated that one child had his leg broken while being physically restrained, while another was restrained 87 times over a period of nine months.

The report followed an inquiry into the care facility ordered by Minister Hanafin, following the death of a teenage girl who absconded from the centre last November.

15-year-old Kim O' Donovan ran away from the care unit in November and was found dead in a bed-and-breakfast on Talbot Street in Dublin's city-centre almost a month later.

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Prior to her death, parents of a 14-year-old boy who had been sexually abused by a relation as a child, had complained to Ms Hanafin that he and all the children at the unit had been locked in their bedrooms for a week in 1998 as punishment for the actions of another child, who had broken a window.

The boy had suffered trauma as he was sexually abused in a locked bedroom between the ages of two and five.

The inquiry, conducted by the Social Services Inspectorate, has led to the closure of the care unit and its future is now uncertain.

Minister Hanafin said in a statement she was "concerned" at the findings of the report, which indicated that "good child care practice was not followed" at Newtown House.

She said she had now asked all the Health Boards to report on the arrangements they had in place to safeguard the rights of children in residential care and emphasised the importance of sufficient psychological and psychiatric services.

Ms Hanafin added: "children admitted to residential care have already experienced a lot of adversity and difficulties in their lives. It is important that this very vulnerable group of children receive services of the highest quality".