Questions remain in child neglect case: ‘Unfathomable how this could happen’
FREDERICTON — New Brunswick authorities are committing to reviews of a severe neglect case that saw five children with little food, and living in a home smeared with feces.
The children lived in filth, missed weeks of school and suffered from a lack of food and serious tooth decay before being removed from the Saint John, N.B., home in 2016.
The Department of Social Development had been involved with the family since 2012, but the children weren’t removed from the home until sheriffs — delivering an eviction notice — reported on conditions in the home.
“It is important we get answers,” Families and Children Minister Stephen Horsman, who has asked for an internal review, said Thursday. “We must do everything possible to ensure situations such as this one described by the court does not happen again.”