The mother of the baby whose minder shook him and caused injury said she did not ask for references when she hired the sitter, but even if she had she was sure she would have got great ones.
Interviewed by Pat Kenny on RTE radio, the baby's mother said she presumed she had forgiven the minder as she had left it all behind her. The bottom line was that the baby had survived and was perfectly well.
The babysitter was given a suspended 12-month sentence at Castlepollard District Court this week after pleading guilty to assaulting the baby in her care on January 11th, 1996, and at a date unknown between December 1st, 1995, and January 10th, 1996. The baby had brain haemorrhages and a retinal haemorrhage.
Asked what she thought about the sentence, the mother, who is from the midlands, said: "I myself think that if she did even go to jail what good would it do her or us?"
The mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, spoke of her distress when she and her husband were not allowed to take the baby home from hospital after his injury on January 11th, 1996. They were given the option of leaving him in hospital or having him taken into foster care.
"We knew we would be suspected, and they would turn to us. We weren't able to say whose fault it was. It was just to try and get them to believe us"
The babysitter did not admit the offence until 4 1/2 weeks later. The mother said she had originally put an advertisement in the paper, and the babysitter was one of the first people to reply. "I didn't check references. It's a local area, and people know each other." She was reassured as the babysitter had three children of her own. "She was absolutely lovely, I thought."
The mother said it was very hard to know what lessons there were to be learned. "I can't say if maybe if I had looked for references . . . but if I had I'm sure I would have got great ones. That is one thing I'm sure of. You can never be certain, never really."
When asked if she had forgiven the babysitter, she said: "I just don't think about it any more, you know, I don't dwell on it any more, I presume I have because I've left it behind me, and really the bottom line is the baby has survived and is perfectly well."
Asked if, looking back, there had been any warning signs, she said the only thing that they did wonder about was that the baby had a fantastic appetite. He drank and ate a lot, but on the days he was with the babyminder his bottles came home full.