Social workers of the Western Health Board have been criticised for their handling of a case in Roscommon in which 
a father has been found guilty of 47 counts rape and sexual assault when his son was aged between 12 and 15.
The family’s mother was jailed last year for similar offences. At the hearing, the lawyer for the father, David Goldberg, told the court that the health board “had put a course of action in progress for putting the children into care”.
However, the mother had gone to the High Court to stop the health board. It went without saying, Mr Goldberg continued “that if the health board had pursued it, the offences would never have happened”.
He said the failure to pursue the matter led to “this tragic result”.
Social services officials had been aware of the family for over two decades.
The Central Criminal Court (pictured), which heard the father’s case, was told the children were made to wear shoes that were two sizes too small, and went to school with head lice “crawling down their faces”.
The children were also constantly hungry, and rotting food was left discarded in kitchen presses. The parents were often drunk, and left their children alone.
According to evidence heard in court, the family lived in this squalor and deprivation for over 20 years, but although officials first got to know the family in 1989, they didn’t take the children into custody until 2004.
It wasn’t until 1998 that they began to take action, and it took them until 2000 before they expressed serious concern about the squalid conditions in which the children were living.
They tried to have the children placed in the care of a relative, but in 2001, the mother obtained an injunction from the High Court preventing this.
However, the injunction was lifted in May 2001, and despite this, the children remained in their parents care until 2004. It was during this time that two of the sons were abused by the father.
An inquiry into the handling of the case is expected to be published soon. The inquiry is being chaired by Norah Gibbons of the children’s charity, Barnardos.