Children in care home 'being beaten' claims mother

A mother whose three young children had been taken into state care, has filed a judicial protest against minister for the family and social solidarity, Michael Farrugia, alleging that the children are being beaten and mistreated by their carers.

The children, two girls aged 14 and 12 and a boy of 10, had been removed from their mother’s custody by means of a care order- issued some time ago, for reasons which were not mentioned in the protest- and taken to Fra Diegu Institute in Hamrun.

During their stay at the Institute, the children told their mother that they had been cruelly treated an on more than one occasion, also beaten by the carers. Reports on the matter which had been filed with the police were never followed up, the mother claims.

The judicial protest, signed by lawyer Edward Gatt, explains how the mother had filed several applications to the court which originally issued the care order, only to see them expunged from the case file, with the mother being instructed to file different procedures.

It called on those responsible to address the issue that instead of being cared for, the children were being “systematically traumatised and mistreated” by the staff at the home.

The mother was frustrated by the fact that those responsible were simply passing the buck and not realising that the children were better off when they were in her care.

She requested the court order the minister for the family and social solidarity to take the necessary measures to safeguard her children’s safety, in the absence of which she would be holding him civilly and criminally liable.