Mother claims she told social worker of her addiction in Cork child neglect case

A three-year-old boy was found shivering in a cabin at the back of a derelict house in Cork City while his mother and her partner were taking of heroin.

The case could not go ahead as Judge Roberts is no longer based at Cork District Court.

Evidence will be called in court in relation to a claim by a young mother in a child neglect case that she told a social worker of her drug addiction but that her children were left with her.

Judge Colm Roberts has already found the facts of the neglect/child cruelty case proven against the young woman and he adjourned the matter for further evidence. 

The case could not go ahead today as Judge Roberts is no longer based at Cork District Court. Judge Marian O’Leary adjourned the case for two months in order to find a date when Judge Roberts would be back at Cork District Court in May.

Defence solicitor, Joseph Cuddigan, brought two matters to the attention of Judge O’Leary today.

Firstly, he said that a particular HSE social worker would need to be notified in advance of the date for the court hearing in May.

“(The young mother) said she had sought assistance and at all times the social worker was aware her drug issue was ongoing and the children were left with her,” Mr Cuddigan said.

Secondly, the solicitor told Judge O’Leary that Garda Roberts had directed all of the notes and documentation related to the defendant’s treatment at a psychiatric hospital should have been available to the court by today. However, he said this had not been done.

“Judge Roberts requested under Freedom of Information that this would be completed by February 16. But all I received was a note from Cork Mental Health Services saying that, ‘Due to the large amount of FOI requests that we are currently processing we will be unable to meet this deadline’. 

“I am hoping you would direct that they get a move on,” Mr Cuddigan said.

Case background

The background to the case was that a three-year-old boy was found by gardaí shivering with the cold in a cabin at the back of a derelict house in Cork City while his mother and her partner were visibly involved in the taking of heroin.

Mr Cuddigan, defence solicitor, said the reason the young woman was pleading not guilty to the charge of child neglect was because she had repeatedly requested the child would be taken off her by the State but it did not happen until the day Garda Judith Notley found the boy in November 2017.

Judge Roberts asked: “Was the child on the At-risk Register?” Garda Alison O’Flynn replied: “The social worker did not have concerns for the safety of the children at the time.” 

Judge Roberts said: “I would not be shocked at all. 

Depending on where you are in the country, active use of heroin may or may not be regarded as a child care issue. I would have my own view of it.

Garda O’Flynn told Inspector Denis Lynch, who prosecuted the case yesterday, that the child’s mother was an active drug user at the time. Tinfoil and needles were found around the cabin.

The defendant – the children’s mother – said both children were now in care and she had access to them once a week. She is presently in residential treatment for drugs.

Judge Roberts found the facts proven. He complimented the professionalism of the gardaí in arranging to have the children correctly taken into care.

The defendant said: “I want to thank the guards for taking them into care. I was trying to get them into care. If I thought the guards could take them into care I would have taken them to the guards myself.”