In the Interest of D. N. M.

Judge Harold R. Banke.

The biological father of ten-year-old D. N. M. appeals the termination of his parental rights. In two enumerations, he argues that the evidence of present parental unfitness was insufficient.

The Department of Family & Children Services (“DFCS”) had a lengthy history of involvement with this family which included concerns that the child’s mother was physically abusing D. N. M. and using drugs. DFCS took custody of the child in May 1995 after she began masturbating in a hospital corridor while barefoot, sickly and hungry, during a visit to her mother and a premature…