A mother whose four-year-old son was murdered by his stepmother has said her child was a beautiful and loving boy whose life was taken by “pure evil”.
The accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, faces being jailed for the mandatory life sentence later this week for the murder of the boy, who suffered injuries typically associated with car crashes or serious assaults.
A victim-impact statement from the child’s mother was part of the sentencing hearing at the Central Criminal Court on Monday.
The mother, who had suffered from mental health problems, had voluntarily given custody of the child to the boy’s father, her former partner, and the accused, who was then the father’s partner, some months before his death in March 2021.
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The boy attended creche when he was living with his mother, but this stopped after the new custody arrangements were put in place.
The mother, frequently distressed, read her statement after placing a framed photograph of her son on the witness stand. Other family members in court wept and some left the courtroom.
She said her son’s life was “robbed” and was taken by “pure evil”.
“Even at four he had so much potential,” she said. “After he died, my whole world was gone, I went down a really bad road, I just couldn’t and still can’t understand why.”
Her family’s life is “just broken” without her son. “The last thing at night I’m haunted by the image of my beautiful son,” she added
“The word that comes to mind is betrayal,” she said, that she had trusted her ex-partner and the accused “to look after my beautiful innocent baby boy.”
She could not “even begin to imagine” the pain he must have suffered in the weeks leading up to his death.
She told the court her son was “perfect” when he was born, and she was very protective of him, constantly watching over him. After she had an image of her son in a small white coffin, she was given medication for psychosis and the medication had helped her, she said.
After the statement, Michael Lynn SC, for the accused, said she had asked him to say she was “profoundly sorry”. Her guilty plea was of significant value and she is regarded as a model prisoner, he added.
Having heard all the evidence, Mr Justice Paul McDermott said he will impose sentence on Wednesday, when he will also deal with a media application to lift an order preventing identification of the accused woman to protect a child witness in the case.
The stepmother had pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter of the child when her trial opened last November. It heard the child was taken from his home by ambulance to hospital on March 13th 2021 and died three days later in a Dublin hospital.
State Pathologist Heidi Okkers told the court the cause of death was a traumatic head injury in association with blunt force trauma to the abdomen.
On the fourth day of the trial, after evidence of a child witness was read into the record, the accused was re-arraigned, on the defence’s application, and pleaded guilty to murder.
An application on behalf of RTÉ and Mediahuis to lift the order preventing identification of the accused was adjourned to Wednesday, on the application of Anne Rowland SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, who said it might have implications in other cases.
The judge said that issue concerned the balance to be struck between the rights of the child witness and the constitutional requirement that justice be administered in public.
Before deciding the media application, he said he wanted evidence related to the best interests of the child witness in this case and about the impact on that child of providing a statement and giving evidence.
He proceeded in the interim with the sentencing hearing after being told the child’s mother, who was unwell when the matter was previously listed, was anxious it go ahead.
Det Sgt Shane O’Neill confirmed to Ms Rowland the accused’s plea of guilty to murder and that, before that, she had admitted two counts of child cruelty on dates between March 6th and 11th 2021.
The accused had, in interviews with gardaí, said the child was a “bold and cheeky” boy who had been confined to his bedroom on March 9th and remained there on that and the following day apart from being allowed out for food and to go to the bathroom.
She later told gardaí she had shaken the boy, she did not know how long for, and he had fallen and banged his head.
The court heard searches on her phone included a Google search “why is it bad if you bang your head and go to sleep”.
The court also heard the accused had told social workers some months before this incident that she had kicked the child on one occasion. At 12.46pm on March 13th, the child’s father contacted emergency services to say the child had fallen from his bunk and could not be aroused. The father said the child had bumps and was the “clumsiest” child ever; he had run into a door some weeks previously and “burst” his eye.
When a paramedic saw the child on the floor, he considered his posture to be indicative of brain damage. He noted “yellowish” bruising, suggesting older injuries, and a bump or haematoma on the back of the child’s head and other indications of a significant head injury
Dr Stephen O’Riordan, who was asked to review the child’s case after he was taken to hospital, said the “whole theatre gasped” when they pulled back the drapes and saw the child covered in bruises.
He documented 17 areas of bruising or injury to both eyes, the ears, arms, legs and back. The “black eyes,” combined with bruises around both ears are “classic signs of physical abuse”. There were possible “grab marks” on one shoulder and to the left elbow, multiple bruises on the back and chest and a “hugely extensive injury” to the back of the head.
A laceration to the boy’s liver, said Dr O’Riordan, would have been caused by “extreme force” and would normally be associated with a car crash.
The child’s father, aged in his 30s, was jailed for seven years in November 2024 after pleading guilty to endangerment, neglect and impeding the apprehension or prosecution of the stepmother, knowing or believing she had murdered his son.
When sentencing him, the judge described his actions as “shameful” and said he bore a high level of criminal responsibility for failing to nurture and protect his son.
The father’s counsel told that hearing he was instructed to publicly state that the man “is ashamed of himself”.
