Mother ‘didn’t believe son’s broken arm was serious’
At the family law court in Ennis, social worker for the Child and Family Agency (CFA) Mary Sheehan outlined how the same boy passed out on another occasion when choked by his mother.
Ms Sheehan said that on another occasion a brother of the teen aged under five was left gulping for air after their mother shoved his head into a pillow when he wouldn’t settle.
Ms Sheehan said the teen sustained a broken arm while playing and was hospitalised for a number of days after emergency surgery.
However, Ms Sheehan said that the boy’s mother did not visit him while he was in hospital and asked him to move furniture and do a handstand while recovering from the injury at home.
Ms Sheehan said the boy eventually removed the cast underneath a shower after the water had softened it.
Ms Sheehan was speaking during an application by the CFA to amend a supervision order that the woman have only one hour supervised access of her three children under 18 each week.
The woman had been allowed shared access of the children with her estranged husband since last July to late last month.
However, the CFA made an emergency move last month that the woman have only supervised access to the children and that regime has been in place for the past three weeks, with the agency now seeking a court order confirming the new access arrangements. This followed gardaí making available last month transcripts of specialist interviews with two of the young children conducted last September that outlined specific allegations against their mother.
Ms Sheehan said: “I have to say in 31 years of social work, I was absolutely horrified about what I read. The details of the children’s allegations were chilling.”
In evidence, Ms Sheehan described one incident where the mother threw a jar of Vicks and struck her young daughter on the eye who sustained a serious eye injury as a result.
In evidence, the mother said she has had a difficult history with alcohol and prescription medication and has taken real steps to address those issues.
Judge Gráinne O’Neill granted the order to the CFA for supervised one hour access per week and adjourned the case to May 19.
