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	The misery of children finding nothing under the tree on Christmas morning while their mother slept off a hangover upstairs is just one of the heart-rending cases to feature in the latest batch of reports from the Child Care Law Reporting Project (CCLRP).</p>
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	One of the children, a young girl, whose mother hit her and called her &ldquo;a scruffy little knacker&rdquo;, had run away from home to live with her grandfather but continued to fret about the welfare of her younger brother.</p>
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	In a letter to the court she wrote: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m scared for my younger brother. Who is getting him dressed and bringing him to school?&rdquo;</p>
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	She told her social care leader that she wanted to live in foster care &ldquo;because most of the time at home I&rsquo;m being hit by my ma, she calls me a &lsquo;scruffy little knacker, a disgrace and a scumbag&rsquo;.&rdquo;</p>
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	The girl told her that for Christmas last year she had asked for new shoes, but when she got up at 9.30 &ldquo;there were no presents under the tree&rdquo;.</p>
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	Her little brother got very upset because he thought that Santa had not come.</p>
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	Their mother got up and told them to go back to bed, then they heard noises in the attic and when they went downstairs &ldquo;there weren&rsquo;t as many presents as we&rsquo;d hoped for&rdquo;.</p>
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	Her mother had been out all of Christmas Eve night.</p>
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	The girl said that her mother &ldquo;drinks in the house all the time, there were always loads of parties&rdquo;.</p>
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	At one party, an adult sat on the sofa beside her, and then &ldquo;touched her in her private parts and asked if she was ok&rdquo;, the social care leader told the court.</p>
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	She said her friends were &ldquo;telling me to call Childline&rdquo;.</p>
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	She had last seen her father four years ago. He had sent her a Communion card which she thought her mother had ripped up.</p>
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	The judge granted a full care order saying the child &ldquo;has nowhere else to go&rdquo;.</p>
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<p>
	Recurrent themes of intergenerational substance abuse, deprivation, learning disabilities, sexual and physical abuse and serious mental health problems feature prominently in the 37 latest cases published by the CCLRP.</p>
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<p>
	In one case the parents abandoned their opposition to an application for a care order when the court heard the children had been living in a house where there was no heating or food, a young girl ate baby formula from the tin because there was nothing else, and the floor was covered in rotten food and dog faeces.</p>
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<p>
	Rats had been seen in the house. One child stank of urine. After three days of evidence the parents&rsquo; barrister conceded the Child and Family Agency case was &ldquo;unassailable&rdquo;.</p>
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<p>
	Social services had been involved with the family for three generations.</p>
<p>
	<a href="http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/child-care-order-cases-reveal-themes-of-abuse-356894.html">http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/child-care-order-cases-reveal-themes-of-abuse-356894.html</a></p>
