SOCIAL Services have moved to help an 11-year-old Portadown boy who is thought to be suffering from alcohol addiction problems, the Portadown Times has learned.
Police were called by Social Services to a house after reports that he had been drinking with a number of adults. A PSNI source said the child is being treated for suspected alcoholism.
"We believe that he has been raised with alcoholism all around him," said the police source. "It may sound incredible, but the level of drinking among children and teenagers in the town - and indeed all over Northern Ireland - is frightening."
An official police statement confirmed that the PSNI had been called to a house in Portadown by social services, but added that, for privacy reasons, they could not make any further comment.
And a spokesperson for Social Services insisted they could not comment on individual cases, but added, "If the Southern Health and Social Services Trust becomes aware of any child in need of protection, it will undertake an assessment of the family circumstances and take the appropriate action."
A Trust source told the Portadown Times, "It comes as no great surprise, given the amount of under-age drinking in the town. It has reached epidemic proportions.
"Teenagers in school uniform are drinking on the way to and from school in places like the underpass near Craigavon Area Hospital and at Bachelors Walk. Recent attacks at Bachelors Walk are being linked with the epidemic and police are doing all they can."
Upper Bann MP David Simpson has expressed his concern at the reports over the 11 year old boy. He said: "Alcohol abuse ruins lives and destroys families. Children of alcoholic parents can themselves develop an alcohol dependency.
"We have in the past seen cases where the authorities have ignored warning signs and left it too late to intervene. While that appears not to have been the case here, we need to also bear in mind that this kind of intervention is not an answer in itself. There is a family that needs help.
"I certainly hope that what won't now happen is that the child will be pushed from pillar to post in care, but that determined steps will be taken to give him the immediate care and protection he needs, but also that the family will be assisted."