A 35-year-old woman abandoned her four-month-old daughter outside a pub in which the child's father was drinking, a jury has been told at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
The Dublin woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to wilfully abandoning the child outside the Belgard pub, Tallaght, on April 26th, 2003. The court was told that the child had since been placed under a full care order until 2020.
Mr Ray McDonnell, who was in charge of the lounge area of the pub, told Ms Martina Baxter, prosecuting, that he was called by a bouncer to the front door, where the mother was attempting to enter the pub, but had been stopped, as children were not allowed on the premises. She asked for a man she believed was at the bar. Mr McDonnell said he told this man, who had been in the lounge since early afternoon, that a woman with a baby was looking for him at the door.
Mr McDonnell said the man told him to say he was not there. When he carried out this instruction, the woman said she knew he was inside. She told Mr McDonnell to inform him that she was leaving the child there in a "carry car-seat" with a bag containing food and nappies. She then got into a taxi. Mr McDonnell took the baby into the office of the pub and rang the Garda.
Cross-examined by Mr Paul Greene, defending, Mr McDonnell said he knew the woman and man and knew they had been partners.
Det Garda Gavin Ross told Ms Baxter that he questioned the father, who was sitting at the bar and was drunk. "He calmly told me the baby was his child, but that he wanted nothing to do with her or with her mother." The man, who was "glassy-eyed", gave him the mother's mobile phone number.
Det Garda Ross took the baby to Tallaght Garda station. He attempted to phone the mother, but the phone was put down several times. Gardaí contacted the social services, who arranged for an ambulance to transport the child to Tallaght Hospital. The baby's aunt collected her from there an hour later.
Det Garda Ross said that the accused woman was arrested at the father's address the following evening. During interviews she told gardaí that she had phoned the father the previous afternoon and arranged that he would take the child for the evening. She claimed he said he would be in the Belgard pub, but she was refused entry because she had a child with her. She told gardaí that the bouncer said the child's father would be out in a minute, and she then went to Molly Heffernan's pub by taxi.
She said she drank four or five pints and then went to the child's father's house before returning to her home. She had a row with the father at his house because he would not tell her where the baby was.
The hearing continues.