A FATHER who neglected and physically abused his children was given a seven-year sentence by Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin yesterday.
The 42-year-old man – who cannot be named to protect the identity of the children – was convicted last April following a 13-day trial of neglecting four of his children and three counts of assaulting each of his sons between January and September 2007.
The five children, three boys and two girls, were aged between four and 11 when they were taken into care.
During the trial, the court heard graphic evidence from social workers and foster parents of the condition of the children when they were taken into care.
The children were described as filthy and inadequately dressed for cold weather with some wearing clothes several sizes too small for them. They ate hungrily when given food.
The youngest child was “walking alive with head lice” and she and her older sister were not toilet trained.
A former neighbour of the family gave evidence that the girls were scruffy and would walk around outside with bare feet. She said they were always hungry and feeding them was “like feeding Oliver Twist.”
The three boys gave evidence during the trial that they were hit by their father, sometimes with implements such as belts and shoes, and the youngest boy described how he was hit “even when I was good”.
Victim impact reports which were read to the court during the sentence hearing outlined the effect the offences had on the children’s lives and their prospects for the future.
The children were described as having educational deficits, difficulties making friends and having a troubled relationship with food.
One child asked that his father receive a “999-year sentence in prison or have his head chopped off”, while a daughter asked the judge to “make everything right” and keep her father away from children.
Det Garda Leon Kenny told Orla Crowe, prosecuting counsel, that the accused man had a number of previous convictions in Britain. They included assault, attempted burglary, criminal damage, theft, abduction, handling stolen goods and indecent assault and gross indecency with a child under 16.
Ms Justice Dunne imposed the maximum sentence of seven years imprisonment on the counts of neglect and wilful assault of the eldest two boys but suspended the final year and ordered that the man enter a good behaviour bond and undergo probation supervision on his release from prison.
She imposed concurrent sentences of six and five years in relation to the other children.
She said the evidence in the case “paints an appalling picture” and the victim impact reports outlined the “appalling consequences that the offences in this case have visited on these children”. She said she had never come across a situation where children had been so damaged by physical assaults and a failure to provide clothing, care and nutrition.
Ms Justice Dunne said she considered foster parents such as those who gave evidence in this case to be “saints, unsung heroes who never get credit”. She could not emphasise enough the debt that society owed these foster parents who, day in and day out, cared for children such as those in this case.
She said that while the accused was the primary breadwinner in the family and his wife was at home, he did have a responsibility to look after the children as he lived in the same house and must have seen them. She said he did beat his eldest son for taking food from the fridge and it must have occurred to him there was an explanation for that.