Woman left young kids with alcoholic

A mother has admitted she left her two daughters in the care of an alcoholic man she had known for two months, while she went to a pub drinking with her partner.

The now 39-year-old mother has denied beating and neglecting eight of her children over a six-year period, during her trial at Galway Circuit Criminal Court.

The woman, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of eight of her children, has pleaded not guilty to 42 charges of child cruelty and neglect, at five different locations on dates between September 1, 2006, and May 12, 2011.