'House of horrors' mother admits incest

THE 40-YEAR-OLD mother who has admitted two charges of incest told a Garda sergeant that the family home was a “house of horror with bells on”.

Roscommon Circuit Court heard that the woman had sex with one of her sons on four occasions starting when he was just 13 years old.

He told gardaí he remembered that one of the incidents was a few days before his 14th birthday and that his mother had come home from the pub and was drunk each time she forced him to have sex.

The woman, who was 36 when she committed incest with the teenager, told gardaí that she was “the worst mother in the world” and that her children would be better off without her.

She admitted that she made her son watch porn movies with her. She said this turned her on and she had sex with the child afterwards.

The woman has pleaded guilty to two counts of incest committed in June 2004 and on a date unknown between July and October 2004. She has also pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual abuse against this son on the same dates and to neglecting and ill-treating each of her six children from 1998 to 2004 . One child was just three at the time and the others ranged in ages up to 14.

The court heard that the woman at one stage threatened her son after the family were taken into care that if he told about the sex she would force him to have sex with her again while she was visiting him.

When he pointed out that visits were supervised she said she would bring him into a bathroom and have sex with him there.

Sgt John Hynes, who investigated a litany of neglect and abuse at the Co Roscommon home, said that in an interview in March 2006 one of the sons said he wanted to tell him about things his mother had done to him.

The teenager said that his mother had come home from the pub one night in June 2004 . She was very drunk, she was staggering and got sick in the bathroom. The rest of the children were in bed, she called him into her bedroom and told him to take off his clothes and lie beside her.

“I was confused” he recalled. After forcing him to have sex his mother told him to go back to his room and not to tell anyone. He said he was crying because she was his mother and he did not know why she had done this to him.

It happened on three other occasions, one of them just a few days before his 14th birthday.

While the woman initially denied to gardaí that she had incest with her son she did confirm it in an interview May 2006. She said she knew it was wrong but she did it anyway.

She said that it happened in her bed and sometimes in the boys’ bedroom when her other sons were asleep.

She said her son had been shocked and afraid. He said “no” but she told him it would not hurt.

Sgt Hynes said that when asked about contraception she said she had her tubes tied after her youngest child was born.

She had threatened her son that if he told anyone about it she would end up in prison and the children would never see her again. The mother said that “truthfully” she did not remember how many times she had sex with her son.

Sgt Hynes said that he put it to the woman that the family home was a house of horrors because of the neglect and the incest, and she replied that it was “a house of horrors with bells on” with her kids neglected and not being fed and her in the pub drinking.

“If I could turn back the clock I would,” she said.