Jury begins deliberating in trial of parents accused of neglect and cruelty

A jury has begun deliberating in the trial of two parents accused of the neglect of and cruelty to their nine-year-old daughter who was left with life-changing brain injuries.

The Dublin-based 39-year-old man and his 36-year-old wife have pleaded not guilty to two charges of assault causing serious harm and three charges of child cruelty at the family home in Dublin on dates between June 28th and July 2nd, 2019.

The child was found unconscious at the family home on July 2nd. Once hospitalised, she was found to have multiple bruises, cuts, bite marks and burns across her body and had bleeding on the brain. She is now dependent on carers for her basic daily needs.

The accused are originally from North Africa and cannot be identified to protect the identify of the complainant.

On day 12 of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, the jury of six men and five woman began its deliberations after been directed in the law by Judge Martin Nolan.

Alleged assault

At about 3pm, the jury foreperson asked Judge Nolan if evidence of alleged neglect was relevant to the charge against the father of assault causing serious harm on July 2nd, which relates to the brain damage. She asked if it was necessary for the accused to have been physically present when the trauma which caused the damage occurred.

Judge Nolan told the jury that everyone in the case agreed that the father wasn’t present at the house at the time of the alleged serious assault which rendered the child unconscious.

He said the prosecution are alleging that he acted in common design with the mother as part of a joint enterprise to change the behaviour of the child through physical chastisement. He said it is the State’s case that, in the minds of the parents, their child was misbehaving, perhaps due to the involvement of a spirit.

‘Physical chastisement’

He told jurors they needed to decide what took place in the house on July 2nd and if the mother did cause the damage by assaulting the child. He said that they then must decide beyond reasonable doubt if her actions were “within the plan” of “physical chastisement” alleged by the State to be shared by both defendants.

The foreperson also asked to receive transcripts of the testimony of the siblings of the alleged victim and transcripts of their initial statements to gardaí.

In their statements, the two children told gardaí that their sister had fallen in the shower that morning. In his evidence to the court, the girl’s younger brother said that this was a lie and that his mother had told him before the ambulance came to say it.

Judge Nolan told jurors that they could listen back to a recording of the testimony given at trial.

The jury will resume deliberations on Friday morning having deliberated for about three hours so far.