INDEPENDENT INQUIRY:THE HEALTH Service Executive says a review has been under way "for some time" into its involvement with the family at the centre of serious abuse and multiple rapes dating back 25 years.
A 50-year-old man was jailed for life yesterday for a number of counts of rape and ill-treatment of four of his daughters over an 18-year period to 2009.
He is already serving a 14-year sentence for multiple counts of rape, buggery and indecent assault between 1986 and 2000 of a fifth daughter.
The man’s wife is also serving an eight-year sentence for cruelty and neglect of eight of her children over a seven-year period.
During the mother’s trial earlier this year, it was stated in evidence that the HSE had knowledge of the family since 2000, and its agencies had been in “regular contact” with the family since then.
During the father’s first trial, a daughter also said that she went to the Garda in 2000 and her father was arrested.
The HSE said yesterday that due to the transient nature of the family’s lifestyle, the contact would not have been consistent. A large number of children have been in care since 2009 when the father was arrested again.
The review into the HSE’s involvement with the family is being undertaken by the National Review Panel for Serious Incidents and Child Deaths, which is chaired by Prof Helen Buckley of Trinity College Dublin’s school of social work.
Prof Buckley’s independent panel was established last year under Health Information and Quality Authority guidance, and recently published six reports into four deaths and two serious incidents of young people.
The HSE said yesterday that national review panel reports are published “except where there are exceptional or compelling reasons in the interests of children and families not to do so”. It could not say when or if this review would be published.
During the mother’s trial earlier this year, the court heard that one of the girls who was born with physical disabilities was found strapped into a filthy buggy by a named social worker in 2002. The social worker advised the mother to bring the child to a local hospital but she never did so.
The court also heard the children were given packed lunches when going to school to avoid any intrusion from teachers or the authorities. The children – in victim impact statements – all expressed anger at being separated from each other by the authorities after their parents were taken into custody.