A woman who fled to Ireland with her family following the Russian invasion of Ukraine later stabbed her eight-year-old daughter more than 70 times in an attempt to murder the girl, it was alleged at her trial on Monday.
The woman, who cannot be named to protect the identify of her daughter, who is now 11, pleaded not guilty to the girl’s attempted murder, at a Central Criminal Court sitting in Limerick.
During her arraignment, in which she entered a not guilty plea, the woman told the court: “I was out of my mind at that time.”
The court heard she used a knife and a phone-charging cable as a ligature during the alleged attack on the girl at a property in Co Clare on September 27th, 2022.
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Outlining the alleged facts, prosecuting barrister Lorcan Connolly SC told the jury gardaí responded to an alert at the property at 7.40am on the morning in question.
Officers forced their way into a locked room where they discovered the accused in a bathroom holding the girl, who had “cuts all over her body”.
Mr Connolly said the girl was bleeding heavily and had sustained more than 70 stab wounds, including to her neck and torso. He added that there was a phone charger cable in her hair.
The girl was rushed by ambulance to University Hospital Limerick (UHL) and later transferred to Crumlin Children’s Hospital, Dublin, where she was treated for life-threatening injures and survived.
Mr Connolly said when gardaí entered the room where the accused and her daughter were found, the accused was not very responsive and seemed confused. A number of packets of prescription drugs were found at the scene.
The woman was brought to UHL where she was treated for a suspected drug overdose. She was later transferred to a psychiatric hospital.
Mr Connolly told the jury they would hear from Garda interviews with the accused in which she told gardaí she intended to end her daughter’s life and then end her own life.
The prosecution barrister told the jury they would have to determine on the evidence presented in court whether or not the accused was fully aware of what she was doing, or if she had been “labouring under a mental disorder” and “lacked the necessary intent”.
Mr Connolly said DVD-recorded interviews between the girl and specially-trained Garda interviewers, in which the girl describes her interactions with her mother in the lead-up to the attack, will be played in court.
The accused has two barristers acting for her, Mark Nicholas SC and Antoinette Simon BL, instructed by Kieran O’Brien Solicitors.
Mr Connolly, for the prosecution, is assisted by Rebecca Smart, BL, and instructed by the office of the State Solicitor.
A jury of seven men and five women were sworn in before trial judge Kerida Naidoo.
The trial continues on Tuesday.
