A BELFAST social services trust is reviewing its practices after four children were found living in squalor despite repeated visits to their home by social workers.
The North and West Belfast Social Services Trust announced the investigation yesterday after a deluge of complaints from residents of Havana Walk in Ardoyne, where the children, aged between four and 10 months, lived with their mother, Ms Patricia Quinn (22).
The RUC was called to the house on Saturday and contacted social services, which took the children into care. Ms Quinn was said to be in Newcastle, Co Down, at the time.
Ms Quinn, a single parent, has described allegations made against her as "disgraceful and untrue".
She insisted her children were well fed and well dressed. She said that she had been out shopping, and not at a party, when the RUC arrived. She alleged she was the victim of a hate campaign by her neighbours and that "somebody" had wrecked her house before camera crews arrived.
One neighbour said she had contacted social services twice over recent weeks after seeing the children walk naked around the house and looking dirty and hungry. She said the children should have been removed then.
Last weekend, four year old Conor was seen to climb through a window and was seen eating bread left out for the birds and scouring bins.
Journalists and camera crews who visited the house yesterday found it to be filthy, littered with rubbish, there was a strong smell of beer and urine and no bedclothes on the bed.
Ms Quinn said she was seeing her children today and was determined to "get them back from foster care". Her neighbours have written to the social services trust accusing it of mishandling the case and demanding a public inquiry.
One woman said: "I called social services twice about her kids and they made emergency calls but nothing happened after that. I made official complaints, gave them my name and address, but nobody ever got back to me."
Ms Judy Kennedy, head of the trust's childcare services, expressed horror at the children's living conditions. She said it was not the trust's policy to comment on individual cases but "the family was known to the trust and work with the family is ongoing".
Officials discussed the case at an emergency meeting yesterday.
The trust is reviewing its handling of the case. In a statement, it said that when contacted by the RUC on Saturday it had responded promptly and removed the children into care.
Sinn Fein has supported the residents' demands for a public inquiry.