Mother cleared over young daughter's fractured skull, guilty of negligence

A young mother of three has been cleared of negligently allowing her daughter to suffer a fractured skull at the hands of a violent partner in 2014, but was placed on probation for failing to take proper care of her children and marijuana use.

The 28 year-old woman, who is not being named to protect the identity of the children was accused of behaving in a threatening manner, failing to take proper care of children entrusted to her care, cruelty to children or allowing cruelty, negligently allowing one of the children to be grievously injured, as well as cannabis and cocaine possession.

Criminal proceedings against the mother began when her young daughter was admitted to hospital with skull fractures and leg fractures, allegedly caused by her partner. The court was asked to provide for the care and safety of the woman’s three children, who are all under 12 years of age.

While separate proceedings against the man for causing the injuries to the girl are ongoing, the police investigations also found that the children and their mother were living in squalor.

The woman’s house was filthy, the court was told. Social workers had found full ashtrays dotted across her home, one of them right next to a baby’s cot. The sheets were dirty, the cot didn’t have all its bumpers and there was a knife on the floor of the two boys’ room. There was also a used sanitary pad on the ashtray in the boys’ room and a plate of mouldy food was found in another room.

Police also charged the mother with negligence and other charges relating to drug possession and abuse.

Married at 16, she had separated from her husband at just 19 years of age and had been going out with a man named Josef, the court learnt.

The woman’s two children testified via videoconference, recounting to the court how on one occasion, they had gone to the Zabbar feast with their mother and her boyfriend and the latter had fought with someone whilst drunk. The children described the boyfriend as “dirty” and “rude” and said that he had spent a night drinking next to them, while their mother had drunk only one glass of alcohol. Despite heavy drinking, it had been Josef who drove them home, they said.

One son added that Josef kept a pitbull at home that had killed the boy’s cats and would defecate all over the house and “destroy everything.” One of the boys mentioned that his sister had to be taken to hospital on one occasion after her brother threw a star shaped toy at her head.

The court observed that the woman, who it was “noticeably immature” had always showed an interest in being guided to give her children a better life.

The accused said she loved being a mother so much that she had stopped working to care for her children on a full-time basis. She had given up on housework recently, because her boyfriend’s dog would dirty the place as soon as she had finished cleaning, she said. She had always taken care of her children, washed, fed and sent them to school, she insisted.

She also said she had not been aware of the abuse being inflicted on her daughter by her partner, whom she left the day she became aware of the accusations.

Despite the cocaine possession Sedqa agency established that she did not have a drug dependency problem but was a “casual and rare” user. A drug test on the woman by the probation and parole department was negative.

But an Appogg social worker reported that although the accused would wash and feed her children, there were other important aspects of their life that she failed to keep up with.

The report concluded that the woman’s difficult childhood had led her to immaturity and advised the court to include a supervision order in any sentence as this would allow the assistance she needed and would benefit both her and her children.

The accused had since reconciled with her estranged husband, leaving her abusive partner behind, the court was told.

The mother herself had testified, telling magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit how on the day that her daughter was injured, she had smoked a joint for the first time and drunk some vodka with cola. The children hadn’t see them smoke, she said, insisting that she had since changed her ways. The mother told the court that she deserved a window of opportunity so as not to lose all that she had achieved in the time since the incident.

In her judgment on the matter, magistrate  Stafrace Zammit noted that she had been shown no proof of the accused threatening violence, nor of any direct cruelty to the children, as well as no evidence that the mother had caused the injuries suffered by the child, not even negligently.  Likewise, the charges relating to drug possession were not proven as no evidence that the woman was in possession of them on the dates specified in the charges were brought.

However, the court ruled that the woman had failed to take proper care of her children and had admitted to smoking marijuana at the Zabbar feast.

Finding her guilty only of those two charges, the  court opted not to inflict punitive sanctions, instead imposing a probation order for one year on the young mother, who was cleared of all the other charges.

Lawyer Michael Tanti Dougall was defence counsel. Inspectors Chris Pullicino, Sylvana Briffa and Edel Mary Camilleri prosecuted.