State ‘failing to protect children in family crises’

THE State must provide a nationwide 24-hour child protection service following revelations that a Co Wexford mother drowned herself and her two children after she was unable to get help in her local hospital, the ISPCC said last night.

Its comments follow an inquest into the death of 28-year-old Sharon Grace, who drowned her daughters, Abby (three) and Mikhala (four) before taking her own life last year.

The distraught mother-of-three from Barntown had called to a local hospital on April 16 last year, looking for a social worker. But it was a Saturday evening and none was available.