Santina Cawley’s injuries could not have happened as result of accidental fall, trial hears

A two-year-old girl found unresponsive in an apartment in Cork died from polytrauma (multitrauma) including fractures of the skull, injury to her spinal cord and extensive bruising of the head and body, which could not have happened as a result of an accidental fall, a murder trial has heard.

Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster told the trial of Karen Harrington (38) at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork that Santina Cawley died as a result of traumatic brain injury and upper spinal cord injury together with polytrauma and lower limb injuries due to blunt force trauma.

Ms Harrington of Lakelands Crescent, Mahon, Cork, who was in a relationship with Santina’s father, Michael Cawley at the time of the child’s death, has denied the murder of Santina Cawley at Elderwood Park, Boreenamanna Road, on July 5th, 2019.

Dr Bolster told prosecution counsel Sean Gillane SC that blunt force trauma resulted from being struck with something or struck against something and Santina’s extensive injuries to her head, upper body and limbs were not the result of an accidental fall.

“These are not accidental but are forcefully inflicted injuries,” said Dr Bolster after cataloguing a long list of injuries sustained by Santina including complex fractures to her skull with displacement of bone, two fractured ribs and fractures to her right arm and end of her left thigh.

Dr Bolster also listed extensive bruising including to Santina’s forehead, side of the face, lower jaw as well as upper right arm, lower left arm, hands and feet while she also found a tear to the philtrum or piece of flesh between the upper lip and gum, usually associated with a blow to the mouth.

Dr Bolster also gave evidence of bleeding up to one centimetre deep under Santina’s scalp including under the various parts of the skull including the dura and the arachnoid, while there was also bleeding into the child’s spinal cord for the full length of the spinal cord.

Cross-examined by defence counsel Brendan Grehan SC, who asked if Santina would have stopped crying after suffering head injuries, Dr Bolster said that Santina would have fallen into a coma as soon as she suffered the extensive head and brain injuries and would have stopped crying immediately.

Dr Bolster told Mr Grehan that Santina could only have suffered the diffuse axonal injuries or injuries to nerve fibres in her brain from her head being struck against a surface or struck with some object and given there was no external injury, it looked like her head was struck against a flat surface.

Dr Bolster re-iterated that she was absolutely certain that the injuries were not accidental due both to their multiplicity and the fact that they were all over Santina’s body, and she said she was satisfied that they were forcefully inflicted rather than caused by any accidental fall.

Dr Bolster told the court that Santina, who was two years and two months at the time of her death, was 47 cms tall and 10.3kg in weight when she conducted her post-mortem on the toddler at the morgue at Cork University Hospital on July 5th, 2019.

The jury of seven men and four women previously heard from Scenes of Crime Examiner, Det Garda Stephen Dennehy that Santina Cawley had suffered a total of 49 external injuries and four internal injuries. The case continues.