A Dublin woman locked her two-year-old baby in a room leaving a note for an older child saying she had "gone clubbing", a Dublin court has been told.
The 34-year-old separated mother of three, who cannot be named, was given a three-month suspended jail sentence after she admitted leaving the children without a suitable adult guardian at her home on June 12th last.
Garda Ronan Murphy told Dublin District Court he received a report that there was a young girl crying in the front garden of a house which turned out to be the defendant's south Dublin home. When he arrived, there was a four-year-old girl in the garden. He knocked on the door, and a 12-year-old boy opened it. "In a back room upstairs, I found a two-year-old crying uncontrollably. The room was squalid with the smell of urine and there were no nappies to change him." There was no furniture in the room and the floor was bare.
Garda Murphy said he spoke to the boy who said his mother had gone out and left a note. It read: "Gone clubbing, back later, look after [the names of the other two children]".
Garda Murphy said the two-year-old boy had been locked in the room and he feared that if there had been a fire the child would have perished. "I have no doubt about that," he said.
Under the Childcare Act, he decided to move the children to a place of safety and took them to Crumlin Children's Hospital. He returned to the house at around 12.30 that night and there was no reply. However, he met the defendant's brother-in-law who said he would try to find her.
In the meantime, the 12-year-old had absconded from the hospital and the defendant had gone home and she went looking for her other two children who were returned to her. Since then health board social workers had been involved and the case was ongoing.
The defendant's solicitor said she suffered from depression and was depressed on the night in question. Her mother, who died two years ago, had helped her in looking after the children. She was ashamed and upset by the entire matter. Judge Brian Kirby said she would not cure depression by clubbing particularly if she met a tragedy when she got home.
He ordered that the three-month prison sentence be suspended on condition that she be of good behaviour and keep the peace for two years. He also ordered a probation report and adjourned the case for two months.