Roscommon Abuse case

[retep]

Surely the judge that presided over the high court hearing referred to in this case needs to be called to account for their decision and on what basis they made such a ruling.

Accountability in cases such as this need to extend across the whole gamut and the investigation needs to be broadened to include the judiciary as well as the HSE/WHB under the umbrella of the investigation.

To my knowledge it would seem that the judiciary are rarely if ever called to account for their decisions and place themselves, or are held, above reproach for the consequences of their decisions, and even to dare to criticise them puts one at risk of potential contempt

"Childcare workers with the HSE told the court that the woman had subsequently gone to the court and secured a High Court order restraining the Western Health Board from going near her house or moving the children."

[The Earl of Desmond]

The High Court order was in 1996 wasn't it - so I can well believe a judge then would be very much of the old school Catholic school were breaking up a family was never an option and if the mother had hidden her tracks so well ...

Where is the father?

Where is the extended family?

I hope she is locked up for the rest of her life in a mental hospital and that she is sterialised.

Then who is making sure the children are getting all the help they need? Can you imagine the work needed to build their sefl esteem and to make sure the girls in particular don't end up pregnant at 15 and the whole cycle of abuse continues.

Also bear in midn the sort of family this mother came from to have turned out the way she did - can you imagine the levels of abuse that went on in rural Ireland.

My God it makes your skin crawl. The combination of repressed priests and nuns and a state run by those same priests and nuns. How many people will go to their grave having never spoken about what was done to them.

I just hope everyone gets the help they need after this case is over.

[Twilight]

I''m sorry but I don''t know anything about this case. Can you tell me about it please?

[The Earl of Desmond]

Well it seems to be the usual case of somone having children she was financiall and emotionally unfit to have. She seems to have spent all her time in the pub - which tells you a lot about local people that no one did anythign to help her children but were happy to take her money in the pub or use her for sex. I assume all the children have different fathers.

Then those children were abused both sexually and emotionally and physically.

Anyhow it seems that the family came to the attention of social services in 1996 or earlier and social workers were involved but everytime the social worker was due they children had to clean up the house and were cleaned and the mother went and bought sweets and cakes etc so the social workers just saw a mother in trouble but nothing as horrific as we know now.

Which begs the question of why the social worker didn't check the house out better or the health of the children or if she had a 2pm appointment that she didn't turn up a day early or a day late jsut to catch the mother off guard.

Anyhow.

Finally social services acted to take the children into care and the mother got a High Court order with the help of a far right Catholic group. You know the sort - who sent pregnant girls to magdeline laundries and allowed priests to abuse children.

No one comes out of this horror with any credit - they all failed to do their job properly.

[sandar]

seven years is far too light a sentence

[The Earl of Desmond]

Isn't it remarkable that there is process in place to update laws?

How many laws are there that are completely out of date - there must be some central log of laws so that they can identify what needs to be updated.

[Andrew49]

There's no surprise to me that help wasn't forthcoming from the authorities when abuses were reported by a doctor. An almost similar situation, many years ago, was discovered by another doctor who wrote of

'verminous condition of several of the children's heads'
'many of the [children] ... suffering from bruises on their bodies.'
'the dirty condition of the heads and the untreated abscess'

Source

That's not to say that this evil woman didn't get offers of help from others as, apparently, a Roman Catholic group financed her application to the High Court to prevent interference with the ongoing abuses in the year 2000.

[The Earl of Desmond]

There's some moron on RTE going on about the law and this and that - but basic humanity should mean those children are removed immediately - there was no question that everyone knew the children were being abused - it seems it all came down to legal issues - how disgusting is that. Also what sort of people are there in Roscommon that this sort of thing goes on?

What would you do if you knew your neighbour was abusing their child or even that you had suspicions - I have neighbours who are constantly screaming so I have called social services about it. I don't know if the children are abused but living in a home with that tension is not good either and will effect them if they think that is a normal way for adults to behave.

I would have closed the door and turned away. I'd rather someone called for help than go into denial and later find out children are being abused or not just children but an older person or anyone.

[Andrew49]

For too long people have turned their heads when it comes to the abuse of children.

Is it because of fear?

The Roscommon case here was reported by a doctor and little happened.

Only lip-service is paid to protecting children here in Ireland, people of the right-wing-nut variety are able to splash out money to prevent abused children being placed in a safer environment though they would say they are defending the Constitutional Rights of the family [to be free from interference from the State] but the result of their High Court spending was that the abuses continued and the State turned it head and shrugged.

[odie1kanobe]

Well it seems to be the usual case of somone having children she was financiall and emotionally unfit to have. She seems to have spent all her time in the pub - which tells you a lot about local people that no one did anythign to help her children but were happy to take her money in the pub or use her for sex. I assume all the children have different fathers.

So well put.

A friend told me many years ago that her parents always told her to never go into or near Kincora boys home and cross the road rather than walk by it. People know but are scared to say anything.

Things like this don't come as a shock and happen as much in Urban as in rural areas and everybody claims afterwards they didn't know and how can it have happened.