A woman who abducted a four-day-old baby from a maternity hospital in Cork was sentenced to three and half years in prison today.
Marie Crean (36) of Eglinton Place, Western Road, Cork had been convicted at an earlier sitting of taking a newborn child from the care of its mother at the Erinville Maternity Hospital in Cork city centre on the night of September 24th, 2002.
Crean snatched the baby from the maternity ward on the night of the incident and ran for the door of the hospital with the baby concealed under her t-shirt.
She was stopped by hospital staff and gave back the baby after they were alerted by an alarm triggered by a tag on the infant's ankle. She fled from the hospital and gardai tracked her down after identifying her on CCTV footage in the hospital.