Ms Ann Marie Sweeney:

I explained to them that when I dropped the kids to school and went to court, I never came back. When I went into prison, I did not have contact with the kids to let them know. You are talking about a week later before being able to have a chat and to even know where the kids were going and who was taking them. Some of the family members were probably pushed into taking them. I know I have some responsibility in that. I knew my mother and grandmother would take them. Sometimes, that put a strain on my mother’s mental health. She was not prepared. She did not have children and did not know what to do. The family and the kids were all uprooted. Imagine if I had met someone from Barnardos before I went to prison. I did not have much support. I knew of no support. I did not know anything like that. It might have prevented a lot of things.