Toddler found among rubbish while mother overdosed

Thursday 17 August 2017

A two-and-a-half-year-old child who was discovered by Ambulance Services living among blister packs, rubbish and stale food as his mother overdosed on prescription drugs has been taken into care following a Court order.

The child - who is named only as ‘Bradley’ to protect his identity - was found clinging to the leg of his mother in late June this year after she had taken a mixture of prescription painkillers and strong muscle relaxant Baclofen, which had not been prescribed to her.

In a statement, witnesses described how the toddler was left crawling around the “dirty, cluttered” flat where drugs and batteries were within reach on the floor while his mother, who was covered in vomit, “...rock[ed] back and forth as well as salivating over herself...making incomprehensible sounds.”

Bradley was found wearing a soiled nappy containing solid faeces - indicating that it had not been changed in some time - while a social worker later observed that the child had dirt on his face and no clean clothes or footwear.

Pictured: Blister packs of prescription drugs were scattered around the unhygienic flat.

A request for the child to be taken into care was subsequently made by the Minister for Health and Social Services, Senator Andrew Green. During a hearing on the matter, the Court heard that the mother was already known to foreign child protection services due to her previous drug misuse, which led to her elder child - Bradley’s half-brother - being placed with his father. The half-brother was said to have suffered developmental difficulties such as being unable to “string a sentence together properly.”

Similar development issues were also observed in Bradley, whose lack of respect for his own wellbeing and safety, “...witnessed for example by his sitting on the laps of unknown parents on the beach only recently.”

While his mother was said to have been receiving support from the Drug and Alcohol Service for a Nurofen Plus addiction, and from Early Help, who had been assisting her with parenthood for around 14 months, Bailiff Sir William Bailhache granted the Minister’s interim care order request. In his judgement, he wrote that the Court believed Bradley was likely to suffer “significant harm attributable to the care given to him” and that, “...it would be surprising if the precipitating event of 25th June 2017 had led to any other conclusion.”