New report reveals 'awful' and 'frightening' cases of severe child neglect and sexual assault

As well as highlighting that parental drug addiction remains a major cause of care proceedings, the cases also highlight a growing number of children with special needs in care across the country.

Cases of children suffering from severe neglect, teenagers whose behaviour puts the public at risk, and a girl being repeatedly sexually assaulted when she absconded from care have been revealed in a series of new reports.

The long-running Child Law Project, which reports on child protection proceedings, has today published 77 new case reports to detail the kinds of cases that come before the courts.

As well as highlighting that parental drug addiction remains a major cause of care proceedings, the cases also highlight a growing number of children with special needs in care across the country.

“The fact some children with a high level of special needs are taken into care when their parents cannot cope, underlines the need for a whole-of-Government approach to dealing with disability, especially among children,” Child Law Project director Carol Coulter said.

In one case, the Dublin District Court extended an interim care order for a young child who had suffered severe neglect, with the judge describing the case as “awful”.

Tusla told the court the child was in a long-term placement, while neither the mother or father were present in court.

The child’s court-appointed advocate, the guardian ad-litem, told the court there was “a little bit more going on with this child”, and was concerned they may not be meeting developmental milestones.

The child was still walking on his toes and hadn’t been toilet trained.

“After those involved had left the room, the judge specifically asked the Child Law Project reporter to note for the report that this case involved some of worst neglect he had ever seen, in particular noting the child’s inability to walk properly when he had come into care,” the project said.

In another case, a special care application was being prepared after a young person went missing and was staying in an apartment being used by drug users, while another “frightening case” detailed how a child had suffered severe and traumatic injuries at three months old while in the care of his parents, including a bleed on the brain.

“The parents offered no further explanation as to how the child’s injuries had occurred and they repeatedly told the medical staff that they did not know what happened,” the project said.

He said they did not react when they were told how sick he was, and they did not ask a single question about his condition or treatment.

In this case, the judge granted a full care order until the age of 18.

A further case involved a young girl who was repeatedly sexually assaulted when she absconded from a “special emergency arrangement”.

While Tusla said special care should be considered, no special care bed was available at the time, and this applied to several other cases where children were at risk.

Other instances involved unaccompanied minors taken into State care where trafficking was suspected, while dozens of cases heard children did not have an allocated social worker.

The project conducts court reporting under tender from the Department of Children.

Earlier this month, it emerged work was under way on a new project modelled on the Child Law Project in the area of family law.

The project is expected to run for three years and will involve the publication of reports on the family law system, which is currently the subject of reform.