A mother lost the custody of her four-year-old son today in spite of an emotional appeal by her to a judge to hold on to her boy.

At a provincial family law court, a district court judge said that it was in the child’s best interests that he now reside with his “hugely committed father”.

The boy’s father wept in court as the judge awarded the man sole custody of the boy in the custody battle with his former partner.

In making the order for sole custody, the judge said that the boy’s mother had until recently abandoned her son to the father and her own mother.

In granting sole custody to the father, the judge overruled a recommendation of a social worker’s report which stated that the four-year-old boy and his younger half-brother are a unit and one that should not be disturbed. The two boys have been living with their mother.

TUSLA had placed the four-year-old on its ‘neglect’ register earlier this year and the judge said that during his four years, the boy had lived at 11 different addresses with his mother and his younger half-brother had lived at seven in the past year alone.

The woman is now “clean” after recently completing a treatment programme for her addiction to drink and drugs and made an emotional plea to the judge to retain custody of her boy.

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Read the full story at Breaking News.