A full care order for a girl who was sexually abused by her father was granted to the Child and Family Agency at Drogheda District Family Court.
Judge Flann Brennan also made a care order for the girl’s brother who was physically abused. The court was told the whereabouts of the children’s father was unknown.
Separately, an interim care order was granted for a teenager and her two young children.
Some 45 cases were listed before Judge Brennan yesterday, including applications for maintenance, access, custody and protection orders, as well as eight applications from the Child and Family Agency.
In one case, the agency sought full care orders for a brother and sister so they could live with relative foster carers until they are 18.
The court was told their mother was dead and gardaí had referred the two children, not originally from Ireland, to the agency last year after the girl made disclosures.
The social worker told the court that the girl said her father began sexually abusing her when she was six and the abuse had escalated when she got older.
The boy had suffered physical and emotional abuse and had witnessed his father pouring a pot of boiling soup over his mother because she put too much salt in it.
The family was known to social services in their home country before they moved to Ireland.
Ashamed
The social worker told the court she had met with the father who
admitted the abuse. He said he regretted his actions and was ashamed of his behaviour, but did not turn up for a subsequent meeting. Gardaí wanted to speak with him but could not locate him, but they do have his passport.
The court heard the foster caring relatives had been assessed and approved, and the children felt loved and wanted in their foster home. There had been initial problems finding appropriate services for because of the language barrier, but a therapist had since been sourced who was originally from their home country.
The judge granted the full care order. “It is perfectly obvious that these orders should be made,” he said.
In another case, the judge granted an interim care order for a teenage mother and her two small children.
The court was told the teenager’s parents, who live in her home country, had taken no part in the proceedings. The teenager wished to stay in Ireland and the agency believed it was in her best interests.
The court was told the “minor mother” was in foster care with her two children and was getting on well there. The Judge adjourned the case to the end of the month.
Met on internet
Separately, Judge Brennan agreed to extend a protection order to a woman against a man she met on the internet.
She had originally been given a protection order in May without her ex-boyfriend being in court.
This required him not use violence against her or put her in fear. Yesterday, the woman asked the court for a safety order, a longer-running order with the same protection.
She made various allegations against him which included slashing her tyres and threatening her with a bottle.
The man said all he ever did was buy presents for the woman and he denied the allegations against him.
His solicitor argued the pair were in a sexual relationship but never lived together, so the legislation invoked was not appropriate.
The woman’s adult son also gave evidence. He told the judge he did not see any violence, but did hear shouting.
He recounted an incident in which he was with his mother when the man approached them in a shop. He said he told the man to leave his mother alone. “He said, ‘do you know who you are talking to? I’ll get my boys after you’,” the son told the court.
The judge said there were grounds to extend the protection order. He would review the case in October and if there were no further grounds, he would strike it out, he said.
