Care staff, who called unannounced to inspect the welfare of eight young children, found no food in the house and barely enough milk for a baby’s bottle, the trial of a mother charged with cruelty and neglect, heard on Thursday.
The 39-year-old mother, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the children, who are now aged between 19 and 18 months, has pleaded not guilty before Galway Circuit Criminal Court.
She is before the court on 44 charges of child cruelty, by wilfully assaulting, ill-treating, neglecting, or abandoning the children, or causing or allowing the children to be assaulted, ill-treated, neglected, or abandoned, in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to the children’s health or seriously affect their well-being, at five different locations on dates between September 1, 2006, and May 12, 2011, contrary to section 246 (1) and (2) of the Children Act 2001.
Two taped interviews involving the second eldest daughter, which were recorded by Gardai in August, 2011 and again in April, 2013, when she was 12 and almost 14 years of age, were played to the jury this afternoon.
The girl can be seen getting upset as she recalls the day in May, 2011, when she and seven of her siblings are suddenly taken away from each other and placed in various foster homes.
“I was very lonely and I really missed by brothers and sisters. It wasn’t fair,” the girl said. “The social worker who called found out Mum was gone and her partner at the time was drunk. The house was in a mess. I tried to clean it but I couldn’t.
“The social worker called three times that day and when she came back the third time, she told us to pack a few things. My mother was gone.
“There was nothing to eat. I had put on chips earlier and there was smoke everywhere. “I was hungry, the boys were hungry. There was barely any milk left for my baby brother’s bottle. It was pretty hard. Two men, my mother’s friends, were in the house at the time. They were drunk,” the girl said.
“It was hard not to be able to live with my family. I haven’t seen my family in over three months and I don’t’ know why. “It was hard going into care, not knowing people. I was sent to stay with different people in different places at first, but I like the foster mother that I’m with now,” the girl said during the second taped interview in 2013.
The then 13-year-old girl said the hardest thing she ever had to do was say ‘good-bye’ to the two youngest children, whom she had effectively reared. “I didn’t see them again for four months. It was very, very hard,” she said sadly.
When asked if she knew why she had been placed in care, the girl replied: “My mum was being irresponsible. She wouldn’t do stuff that another mother would do. Sometimes she would go for days and not come back and she wouldn’t answer her phone when we’d call her. You wouldn’t be able to talk to her. “She used to hit me with a back scratcher or things but I didn’t mind as much as the others,” the girl said.
Mr Shane Costelloe SC, prosecuting, had told the jury on the opening day of the trial on Tuesday that after the children were placed with various foster parents in May 2011, they began to recount a narrative of violence within the family home, explaining how their mother had physically abused them.
“The general assertion the children make is one of deprivation. They recount there is very little food on occasion and their mother is frequently absent from the family home for days on end. There are drinking sessions going on and they recount a narrative of violence in the family home,” he said.
The trial continues tomorrow.