A 26-year-old woman who doused an 18-month old toddler with petrol and is “a clear danger to the public” has been jailed for three years.
Majella McCarthy of Galway Road, Ennis, Co Clare, first poured petrol over her father after flying into a rage at the family home before going to a car parked outside, and dousing a baby girl and her mother with petrol.
During her trial at Ennis Circuit Court last July, the State argued that three lives had been put at risk and it was a mercy the 26-year-old hadn’t been carrying igniter on her at the time.
It took a jury just 35 minutes to find Ms McCarthy guilty on three counts of assault causing harm at Spanish Point Road, Miltown Malbay on March 4th last.
Today at Limerick Circuit Court Judge Sean O’Donneabhain said the 26-year-old who suffers from what doctors described as an anti social personality disorder “presents a clear danger to the public”.
The judge had adjourned sentencing in the case until today to allow for a probation and psychiatric report to be prepared to determine if Ms McCarthy would cooperate with a treatment programme.
Before imposing the jail term Judge O’Donneabhain said it was obvious from all of the reports prepared for the court that Ms McCarthy remains a danger to other persons because of her behaviour and said the option of placing her in any setting other than prison was not open to him.
The court heard that in one report prepared by the Central Mental Hospital the 26-year-old, who has been exposed to therapeutic sessions since she was 16, was at high risk of re-offending.
On March 4th last at the family home at Spanish Point Road in Miltown Malbay, Co Clare, Ms McCarthy doused her father John with a four litre petrol can after she flew into a rage because he had got a barring order out against her.
She then went out onto the road where she opened the back door of a car which happened to be parked outside and poured petrol over Aisling Kelly, an 18-month old baby, and her mother Mary.
In her victim impact statement Mary Kelly said she and her young daughter had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and that she is afraid to let her children out of her sight since the ordeal.
She said her baby daughter is now thriving, however for three or four nights after the incident she woke up countless times.
At the last court sitting the accused woman’s father John McCarthy appealed for help for his daughter, expressing the fear that the next time she is in court it might be for killing him.
Mr McCarthy told the court: “I think she is getting dangerous. It is getting serious. I am not here for sympathy for myself, but help for my daughter. Our family home is a prison and it has been a prison for the past eight or nine years and through no fault of our own.”
At yesterday’s sentencing hearing Judge O’Donneabhain said he had taken Mr McCarthy’s evidence to heart and had tried to identify a treatment programme for Ms McCarthy but because of her lack of cooperation no such place was available.
Judge O’Donneabhain told the accused; “Your father was also afraid that if you came out of jail you would revisit him with violence on your release and I think unfortunately he may be correct”.
The Judge went on to describe Ms McCarthy’s actions as “definite and deliberate and entirely careless as to the effects on other persons”.
He said it was “incredible” that she had subjected an infant to such an assault and said the 26-year-old was devoid of normal factors such as “guilt, outrage, and sympathy” which inhibit a person from taking particular actions.
Judge O’Donneabhain said the extent to which Ms McCarthy was prepared to act out her emotions was seen on her last occasion in court when she spat at counsel for the State Stephen Coughlan and threatened her own legal counsel.
The court heard the 26-year-old also assaulted a garda in court who had tried to settle her down.
Defence counsel Pat Whyms (BL) told the court that his client had given birth to a baby two months before the incident with the petrol and that the baby was taken into care and that Ms McCarthy had been living on the streets.
He said despite his client’s psychological difficulties she had never been in trouble for a serious offence before this incident, which was committed in this context.
Judge O’Donneabhain described the offence as a “nasty dangerous type of assault carried out in a wilful manner” and imposed a three year jail sentence on the assault charges and a further six months to run concurrently for the assault on the garda during Ms Carthy’s court appearance.
He also recommended that whatever psychiatric treatment is available at the Dochas Centre in Mountjoy or the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum be made available to the 26-year-old during her imprisonment.
During the proceedings Ms McCarthy remained hunched over in her bench muttering to herself and pulling at her hair. She also called on the Judge to “just give me my sentence”.