‘Worst mother in the world’ walks free after 5 years

The mother at the centre of the notorious Roscommon ‘house of horrors’ case is due to be released from prison today.

The 45-year-old, who described herself as the “worst mother in the world”, will leave Dóchas Women’s Centre at Mount-joy Prison after serving five years. She was jailed in January 2009 for the maximum term of seven years for incest, sexual abuse, neglect, and willful ill-treatment of her six children at the Co Roscommon home, dubbed the House of Horrors. The woman had a quarter of her sentence reduced for good behaviour.

The children, aged from 6 to 15, were not fed properly, their clothes were not washed, and the range which heated the home was only lit once a month. There were dead rats and mice inside and outside the council-owned house.

Their mother, who suffered from depression and asthma and had a drinking problem, would routinely go to a pub at around 6pm, leaving the children alone, only returning home drunk in the early hours.

One of the girls described the home as scary when her mother was drunk. The child was bullied at school and other children called her smelly. In an interview with gardaí in 2006, the mother admitted that her children were often blue with the cold, only had dinner twice a week, and had lice crawling around their heads and bodies.

She pleaded guilty to 10 charges including forcing her son, 13, to have sex with her. “It was a house of horrors... with bells on,” she said. When gardaí arrested her, she admitted the offences and said she was sorry. “My kids were sexually abused, not washed and not fed — I am the worst mother in the world and I don’t deserve to get my children back”, she said. Aged 40 at the time, she became the first female in the history of the State to be convicted for incest.

The late Judge Miriam Reynolds imposed concurrent sentences of up to seven years — the maximum term available under an incest conviction. She suggested that new laws may be needed to deal with incest cases involving mothers.

Roscommon TD Denis Naughten has tabled new legislation, which was accepted by the Government last month, to increase the sentence for incest by a female from seven years to life and bring it into line with the penalty for incest by a male.

“I’m disappointed that the Government intends to drag out the enactment of this law by incorporating it into the forthcoming Criminal Justice Sexual Offences Bill soon to be published by the minister for justice,” he said.

“I believe that five years is far too long to wait for this loophole to be closed off.

“However, I will work closely with the justice minister to have this law enacted as soon as possible. We owe it to the children at the centre of the Roscommon case to ensure that their courage and bravery is recognised.”

“No other family should be failed by the State again to the extent that they were and that is the reasoning behind this bill”.