Danny failed from ‘cradle to the grave’
THE aunt of Danny Talbot who died in State care 13 years ago said she has never been able to accept his death.
Danny, 19, from Summerhill in North Inner City Dublin, overdosed and was found on Berkeley Street on August 4, 2009. His case was also highlighted in the children’s death review report in 2010.
The youth was taken into care after his father died and at the time he was 10, his mother Linda had already passed away.
Donna Lambe said despite her nephew’s death, she still “cannot deal with it”.
The young man, she added, had been “failed from the cradle to the grave” by the social workers.
She said: “They brought us to our knees and they really broke us. We could get no help for Danny while in State care.
“When he died we received no call from the HSE until seven days after his death and it wasn’t until then that we were allowed to see him.
COFFIN
“We were out buying clothes for him and picking his coffin when we hadn’t seen the child.
“The children in care are going through the mill, there is no accountability and every social worker who let Danny down was never held accountable, in fact most of them were promoted.
“He ran away from foster care after his father died. Danny came to live with me for two years and you are promised the sun moon and stars, nothing was done, we got no supports whatsoever. By then Danny was so broken and traumatised,
“The State is supposed to provide a duty of care, they never followed up on anything for him.
“Eventually his life was spiralling out of control, we were begging for help.
“We appeared in court 21 times. He was due to come to me one Tuesday and his foster carer rang. The minute I answered I said, ‘He’s dead isn’t he?’. She said ‘yes’.
“The police were the only ones who informed us and we waited all that day and we received no call from the HSE.”
She said the death of Sinead O’connor’s son Shane brought back memories.
She added: “I sobbed and felt physically sick with sorrow and pain for her and his family. I know exactly what it is like. You just think, ‘This can’t be real’, especially when they are in the care of the State.”