A woman who has been taking care of her nephew in her own home applied for guardianship of him yesterday at the District Family Court, telling the judge the child’s mother “has problems rearing boy children”.
The court was told the mother and father also had a daughter and looked after her, but could not rear either of their sons, one of whom was now an adult, because of the mother’s “psychiatric problems”.
The young boy had no access to his sister, but did see her in the schoolyard, the boy's aunt told the judge. She said the Child and Family Agency had been out to visit her and were happy the boy was being well cared for.
She wanted legal guardianship of the boy so she could sign school forms and bring him for medical treatment if needed without having to seek the permission of his parents.
Her solicitor said the parents had signed terms of consent witnessed by a priest to say the aunt should be the boy’s guardian, along with his grandmother. Neither parent was in court.
Concern
The judge said he was concerned for the welfare of the daughter and was “not comfortable” with the situation. He wanted to know what was wrong with the father that he could not raise his son.
“There is something wrong morally and legally,” he said.
He said the situation was “crying out” for the involvement of the State. He adjourned the case for two weeks and directed that someone from the Child and Family Agency attend court and say if they honestly believed the welfare of the children was being properly provided for.
The case was among over 90 listed for the day. The judge also struck out an application for a safety order and discharged a protection order after concerns were raised about the mental health of the woman who applied for it.
On the last day in court, the woman told the judge the man whom she sought protection from had sexually assaulted her, poured boiling water on her in the shower and threatened to pimp her out to his friends. She was granted a protection order on an ex-parte basis, where only one side is heard.
She did not appear in court yesterday for the safety order hearing, but the man against whom the allegations were made attended with his solicitor. He said he was the woman’s landlord and had only met her on two occasions to collect rent.
Allegations
His solicitor said the woman had also made allegations against her ex-husband who had custody of their children, had once been committed to a mental institution by her family and had attempted to kidnap her ex-husband’s new partner.
“She is one sick woman,” the solicitor said.
The judge said he had received an email from the woman saying she would not attend court unless under armed guard. “This is very serious and very sad,” he said. He struck out the case because the woman was not present to substantiate her allegations.
The judge also issued more than half a dozen arrest warrants for failure to pay maintenance. In one case he was told a father was not attending access visits, and his young child had taken to singing “Daddy is not coming to town” to the tune of the Santa Claus song.
“I cannot force a dad to take up access to his kid,” the judge said.
