Danny Talbot, who died aged 19 last summer, of a suspected drug overdose, while in the HSE aftercare system, was born into circumstances of extraordinary deprivation.

His mother, Linda Lamb, was intellectually disabled, and spent much of her life in and out of the care system. She drank heavily, regularly went missing, and had a total of nine children by various men in both England and Ireland. All her children were placed in care.

Danny was Linda’s sixth child. She left his father, Paddy Talbot, shortly after he was born, and Danny lived with Paddy Talbot, in Dublin, along with his elder brother, Joe, who has a severe learning disability.

Reports by social workers from the time reveal that Paddy Talbot was ill-equipped to care for the boys. (The social workers’ reports are contained in extensive documentation obtained under Freedom of Information legislation by Linda Lamb’s sister, Sandra Lamb.)

On one occasion in 1999 when the social worker called, they found Danny, then aged ten, and his brother Joe, aged eleven, at home alone. On another occasion, the social worker noted that Joe was wearing just a t-shirt and that his lower body was “soiled” and there was “a strong smell of faeces”. Social workers regularly noted the poor hygiene and condition of the boys, particularly of Joe.

In October 1999, Danny’s father, Paddy, died at home, and was found by Danny. According to Sandra Lamb, Danny and Joe were undernourished and filthy. Joe was like “a feral child”, she said, infected with lice and with his body “covered in urine and faeces”.

Though there is no record of any complaints of sexual abuse at this time in the documents, Health Board documents from some years later reveal that Health Board staff assumed that the boys had been abused.

Danny was placed with a foster family, and Joe was taken in by his aunt, Sandra Lamb. Danny didn’t settle and, aged 12, began running away from his foster home. He had difficulties with his temper. At one point, in a meeting with Health Board staff to discuss care arrangements for Danny and his siblings, he got so frustrated that he punched his hand through a window and had to be taken to A&E.

Meanwhile, Danny’s mother, Linda Lamb, had had a further child, who was taken into care, and was living in B&B accommodation.

In November 2000, Linda Lamb’s sisters attended a case conference at the Northern Area Health Board to discuss her situation. Linda was then pregnant with her eighth child. She had had no anti-natal care, was homeless, and it was reported that she had “been sleeping in fields”.

Linda’s sisters said they wanted her to be sterilised, as she had “no concept at all of the needs of a baby”. Linda was not capable of giving informed consent, and they discussed making her a ward of court. This never happened, however, and Linda subsequently had another child, who was also taken into care.

Linda’s sisters sought to have her placed in a care facility with one-to-one support by the Health Board. However, she was placed instead in a series of B&Bs. In May 2006, she was the subject of an attack where, according to her sisters, she was raped and subsequently pushed into an open fire, sustaining horrific burns to her back. No prosecution was ever taken. According to Sandra Lamb gardaí told them at the time that Linda was not competent to give a statement, though she had described what had happened to her sisters.

Linda was subsequently placed in St Ita’s Hospital, Portrane. She was safe there, at least, but her sisters believed it wasn’t suitable, and again sought to have her placed in sheltered accommodation with one-to-one support. However, in April 2007, Linda suffered a brain haemorrhage while in St Ita’s, and died. Her sisters allege that she was neglected in the period leading up to her haemorrhage.

Two years later, in August last year, Danny Talbot, Linda’s sixth child, was found, dead, in a flat in Dublin’s inner city, apparently of a drug overdose. His teenage years had been marked by consistent difficulties, culminating in involvement with drugs and crime, and a brief spell in prison.

It had taken his family a year of legal action to secure a proper assessment of his care needs, which eventually culminated in an aftercare plan being put in place; the plan, clearly, came too late.

Sandra Lamb and her sisters, Donna and Debbie Lamb, said their family “has been treated with disrespect for too long now. We were dismissed as if we were a burden when we went looking for help.”

They said they were seeking a full inquiry into the circumstances of the deaths of Danny and of his mother, Linda Lamb. They said they had had no contact from the HSE since Danny’s death.

The HSE said last night they were conducting a review into the circumstances of Danny’s death, and that the family’s views would be taken on board as part of that review.

Published in the Irish Independent Saturday March 6