An 18-year-old Dublin woman who went to the High Court last April to seek suitable care and accommodation for herself and her two children has been found dead. News of her death was given to Mr Justice Peter Kelly in the High Court yesterday.
People working with disturbed children said last night that health board managers had failed the young woman, who had special needs. Sources said she had the mentality of a child and was exceptionally vulnerable to sexual exploitation. The care she received since 1997 was described by a child psychiatrist, who assessed her in 2000, as "disastrous".
The woman had taken proceedings before the High Court seeking appropriate care and accommodation for herself and her two small children, who are now in foster care.
While dealing with the case of another child yesterday, Mr Justice Kelly was told that the girl had been found dead. Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, for the Northern Area Health Board, told the judge that he believed the court should be told the "very bad news" as soon as possible.
No details of the woman's death were given, but it is believed she may have died of a drug overdose and that she was found in a laneway close to Dublin city-centre some days ago.
According to the health board, she had been living in a house which it provided. As she was 18, she was legally entitled to come and go as she pleased. When she left the house and did not come back, the gardaí were called, and her body was later found.
The woman had a very troubled history and had experienced physical abuse, neglect and abandonment, her solicitor, Mr Pól Ó Murchú, said in an affidavit at a court hearing last year.
She lived with her maternal grandparents until her grandmother's death and was placed by her mother in the voluntary care of the Northern Area Health Board when she was 14. In April 2001 the court heard that, in the three years in which she was in voluntary care with the NAHB, she had had 14 different and unsuitable placements, including in bed-and-breakfast accommodation, which she had to leave in the mornings and could only return to in the evenings. As a result, she wandered aimlessly and was exposed to high levels of risk on the streets.
Her solicitor complained that she had been demonstrably in need of a highly therapeutic programme of care since at least 1998.
Social work sources said last night that attempts had been made to obtain help for the young woman, but suitable help had not been provided.
They accused health board managers of failing to do enough. "We could have done something if they had listened," one said. sThe same sources forecast that, with social workers leaving the child care system in disillusionment, similar cases would occur in the future.
They said that cases of abuse were not being dealt with because of a shortage of social workers.