A District Court judge is calling for a change to the law which prevents journalists reporting on HSE applications to take a child into care.
“We’ve learned very little from our past with children and we’ll continue to learn little,” said Judge Desmond Zaidan. Childcare applications were heard “in a hush-hush, secretive manner with the public not knowing what’s going on”. There were “pitfalls” but they went unnoticed because the hearings took place in private, he added.
He described children as “innocent silent victims” in such cases, and said the press should be allowed to report with the same kind of restrictions that applied to the reporting of cases involving juveniles and sexual offences.
He made his comments at Athy District Court, where he told a woman (39) that it must have been traumatic for her four-year-old daughter to spend 10 days in care in the “arms of total strangers.”
The woman and her partner (39), who is not the child’s father, pleaded guilty to being drunk while the child was in their care last September, when they were seen staggering on the street in Athy at about 10.30pm.
When Garda Sgt Thomas Harte followed them to their flat, they were so drunk they were unable to stand and their speech was slurred.
The HSE was notified and the child was taken into care for 10 days, but was returned to the couple. They are still being monitored.
“Appalling” behaviour
The case was heard in open court because it was a criminal prosecution, but the judge ordered that their names should not be published so as not to add to the child’s trauma. He said they actually deserved to be named and described their behaviour as “appalling”.
Solicitors for the couple said it had been a wake-up call for them. They had since visited the Poor Clares in Carlow and both had taken the pledge, the court heard.
However, Judge Zaidan asked the probation service to assess the couple. If reports were not positive when they were back before the court on May 28th, they could face a month in prison and he would not hesitate to get the HSE involved again.