A man who beat his four-year-old nephew with a belt and neglected to seek medical attention for him when he suffered seizures has been jailed for three years by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
James McGreevy-Simpson (27), of Tymonville Road, Tallaght, admitted to three counts of assault causing harm to the boy and to two counts of willful neglect of his now eight-year-old nephew between August 5 -30, 2000.
His wife, Melanie Simpson (28) who admitted to willful neglect of the boy between the same dates received an order to serve 240 hours of community service in lieu of a two-year sentence.
When the child's mother was summoned in the early hours of the morning he was found to have "well in excess" of 35-40 bruises on his body and had twice suffered serious seizures.
Her son had been in her brother's care for more than two weeks and his mother, who had been expecting her son back a few days previously had been told she could not have him back just yet because he was on holiday in Mosney.
She found him on his uncle's bed having a fit. He was "shaking like a leaf", he was "cold as ice" and he was "foaming at the mouth."
Medical examinations revealed that he had also suffered brain injuries, which has led to him currently experiencing learning difficulties. The brain injuries, caused from a blood clot, could not, however, be directly attributed to the injuries he had suffered at the hands of his uncle.
He was also found to have bleeding in the back of his eye and the skin between two fingers of his right hand was peeling as if he had been scalded.
Judge Desmond Hogan said he rejected a suggestion in mitigation by defence counsel that McGreevy-Simpson had been given "a mandate to discipline" the boy.
"You do not need a parenting course, at this day and age, to know that you don't use a strap on a child of four and half," he told McGreevy-Simpson, who has since enrolled in such a course with Jobstown Family Centre to try and regain custody of his own son who has been taken into care.