Drug addicted mother admits allowing child to be 'ill-treated'
A mother who allowed her two-year-old son to be ill-treated by another person had to be persuaded to bring her child to hospital and repeatedly lied about what happened to him, a court has heard.
Medical staff at Tallaght Hospital called gardaí after they discovered extensive bruising to the toddler's face, ears, back, buttocks, thighs and genital area when the woman brought him there in February 2017.
When the child's grandmother saw him in hospital, she thought the boy looked like a child from an ISPCC ad, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard today.
The 23-year-old woman, with an address in Co Wicklow, pleaded guilty to two counts of allowing her child to be ill-treated in a manner which would cause unnecessary suffering or injury to his health or seriously affect his well-being.
The offences occurred in a place unknown within the state between February 10 and 13, 2017 and February 14, 2017.
The woman was living with a man at the time. He has since been charged in relation to the matter and is expected to stand trial at a later date. None of the parties involved can be named to protect the anonymity of the child.
The woman, who is a drug addict, is hoping to enter rehab, the court heard. Her sentence was adjourned to October 16 to allow this to take place.
Detective Garda Fionnuala Delahunt told Garrett McCormack BL, prosecuting, that the woman came up with a number of accounts as to what happened to the boy. She pretended he had met his biological father for a visit when the injuries happened, but gardaí later discovered she had made this person up
She also said the boy bumped into a table and hurt himself coming down a slide. None of these explanations were consistent with the child's injuries. He was removed from her care and is now being brought up by his maternal grandparents.
In a victim impact statement read out in court, the boy's grandmother described being told by gardaí that her grandson had been hospitalised, before finding him covered in bruises in hospital. She had last seen him two weeks prior to this, the court heard.
She recalled walking into the hospital and seeing her grandson smile at her. He was covered in bruises and looked like a child from an ISPCC ad, she said. “I was so shocked,” she said. “I tried not to cry and be strong for him.”
She said her grandson was nervous and withdrawn for a long time and scared of men. He had night terrors and became hysterical when he saw the bedroom he used to share with his mother. The grandparents eventually moved house as a result.
He has suffered speech regressions and struggled with playschool. His grandmother said he used to love playing with other children, but this changed in the aftermath of the abuse and his primary school education had been delayed.
His mother was granted supervised access, but only turned up to a few visits. She has not seen him since Easter of last year, the court heard.
“She is my daughter and I love her,” the boy's grandmother said of the woman. “We would love her to have a relationship with him some day but that day is a long way off.”
She said her daughter has not accepted responsibility for what happened to her son.
“We will never know what caused (his) injuries,” she said. “She should never have brought him to this place where he was subjected to emotional and psychological trauma.”
The woman cried as the victim impact statement was read out. The boy's grandmother was not in court for the hearing as she did not feel able to attend, the court heard.
Defence barrister Eilis Brennan SC told the court the woman has drug addiction issues. She has failed to attend Probation Service appointments due to changing addresses.
She is now living in a hostel and has engaged with drug addiction services. She is hopeful of entering a drug rehab centre in the coming months.
Judge Patricia Ryan adjourned the matter to allow for this to take place. But she ordered that the matter return to court immediately if the woman does not engage with the services.
A woman who was living with the mother and the accused man told gardaí that on the morning of February 14, the mother was in bed and the toddler was watching TV with the man. When the housemate came home later that day, the mother was hysterical and the child was injured.
They took the child to the man's relatives, who told the mother to bring the boy to hospital immediately. “It took some persuasion,” Det Gda Delahunt said.
The court heard that in the days prior to the assault, both the woman and the man's family members expressed concern about bruising on the toddler, but the mother told them he was a “clumsy child who fell all the time”.
