By Gordon Deegan

A "cruel, violent, pathetic and unloving" mother who subjected four of her children to “a horrific catalogue of abuse” for years has walked free from court.

This follows Judge Gerald Keys telling a Circuit Court today that he could not see any benefit in jailing the 47-year-old woman.

In his judgement, Judge Keys said: “I have considered this case carefully and I have come to the conclusion that I cannot see any benefit to society by imposing a custodial sentence.”

Instead, Judge Keys has imposed four three-year suspended sentences on the mother to run concurrently for the cruelty and neglect of the children.

In the case, the woman pleaded guilty to ill-treating and neglecting her four children over a 30-month period between October 2012 to April 2015.

The children were aged between 15 and 18, a sister 9 and 12, a brother 7 and 10 and brother aged between 1 and 4.

A fifth child - the eldest son - who also suffered at his mother’s hands ran away before the Garda investigation was launched and today resides abroad.

In the evidence before the court, the son who brought the abuse to the attention of the authorities said his mother made his life "a living hell" through years of physical and emotional abuse.

In his victim impact statement, he said: “I often thought about killing her as I know it would make life better for my siblings but that would mean they would have to grow up without their older brother and they didn’t deserve that.”

She made my life so hard nearly to the point of me wanting to end my life.

In his judgement, Judge Keys said: “Child cruelty can’t be treated lightly by the courts and the sentence imposed by this court must be seen as a deterrent to others.”

Judge Keys told the accused that “the children were young and vulnerable and relied on your love, protection, support, guidance - you failed to provide protection, love, support and guidance”.

Judge Keys told the woman: “You were in a position of trust that you abused and it was only when the authorities intervened that you sought help for your problems.”

Judge Keys said that the aggravating factors in the case were the nature of offences, that the accused had abused the highest position of trust as a mother; addiction to alcohol and drugs; the age of the children and circumstances in which the offences occurred and the woman's failure to seek help for her addiction problems.

The judge said that there were a number of mitigating factors in the case - the plea of guilt; that the accused had expressed genuine regret and remorse; the risk of re-offending is low; no previous convictions; the accused had co-operated with Gardaí and taken all necessary steps to rehabilitate herself and professes the intention to continue with her rehabilitation programme.

The judge said that as a result of the accused’s own early childhood experiences, she had an attachment disorder that contributed to poor understanding of parenting and poor knowledge of parenting skills.

The judge also stated that the accused was suffering from depression during the time of the cruelty and neglect of her children.

Judge Keys said a report on the accused says that she is “contrite for the emotional and physical pain, upset and upheaval that her actions have caused to her children”.

Judge Keys said that the mother has lost the respect of her children and is now alone.

The judge said that the report records that the mother aims to build a relationship of love and respect with the children.

Currently, the woman is allowed supervised access with three of her children by TUSLA and only the youngest wishes to meet her.

In evidence, the teen who informed the authorities said that his first memory of the abuse suffered from his mother was her breaking a boat paddle on the two brothers when striking them with it in around 2008.

In his statement to Gardaí, the main complainant documented the years of abuse he suffered.

In one incident in 2013, the teenager had a cast on his arm after breaking it while playing sports.

The teen was out some time later playing with friends in the front lawn at home when the mother demanded that he do a handstand with his cast on.

He refused and she threatened that she would hit him with an electric cable if he didn’t. He refused and the mother then assaulted him with the electric cable.

Garda Kevin Duffy said that the teen did the handstand even though it caused him extreme pain and the boy said that his mother laughed at him when she saw the pain he was in.

In another incident, the mother chased her son out of the house at night with a coat-hanger and he was forced to sleep outdoors for the night on a trampoline with no cover as she had locked the doors of the house.

The teen said because of the mother’s neglect, the house was in a terrible state and evidence was heard that it was vermin infested with bluebottles everywhere along with rubbish and unwashed dishes.

One witness said that the house was ‘vile’ and had a dreadful smell while the house was in complete darkness during Summer days as the mother didn’t allow any light into the house.

The teen remembered instances where the mother would force feed his brother by grabbing his nose and jamming food into his mouth.

In respect of the youngest in the family, the main witness said that he remembers his mother shoving the toddler's face into the pillow for three to four seconds, hear him catch his breath and slap him across the face and body.

The baby was also force-fed.

The teenager recalls: “If he spat it out, she would slap him and put the food back into the mouth.”

The only daughter in the family recalled to Gardaí her mother hitting her so hard across the face that her palm was imprinted on her cheek.

The girl recalled her mother throwing a Vicks jar at her and hitting her below the eye.