A JURY found a woman guilty of the attempted murder of her eight-year-old daughter. The girl sustained more than 70 stab wounds during the attack, the jury heard. The woman also attempted to strangle her.
The woman, who cannot be named to protect her daughter’s anonymity as a minor, denied the charge before the Central Criminal Court.
The jury of seven men and five women told Judge Kerida Naidoo they were agreed the defendant was guilty of the girl’s attempted murder.
The trial heard the defendant told Gardaí following her arrest that she was “out of my mind” at the time of the attack in September 2022.
The court was told the girl was kept alive by heroic Gardaí who broke into a locked bedroom at a temporary accommodation centre where the two were living.
Paramedics treated the girl at the scene and transferred her by ambulance to University Hospital Limerick and onto the children’s hospital in Crumlin, Dublin, where she received life-saving surgery.
The court heard a recording of the girl’s Garda interview in which she said her mother stood over her in her bed on the morning in question and told her: “I’m going to kill you and then I’m going to kill myself, because that is what’s best.”
The girl said her mother used a “big kitchen knife”. She said her mother “dragged” her into an en suite bathroom and continued stabbing her in her stomach, chest, back, and legs.
The girl – who was not cross examined by the accused’s defence barrister – said her mother told her she feared people were going to take her away from her.
A witness called by the prosecution, led by senior counsel Lorcan Connolly, consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Richard Church, gave evidence that, in his opinion, the defendant could not rely on a defence that she was insane at the time.
Dr Church said, in his opinion, the defendant was aware of what she was doing and did not believe she did not know that what she was doing was wrong.
The court heard the defendant had previously accessed psychiatric hospital services in her native Russia where she was diagnosed with “bipolar active disorder”.
In March 2022, six months prior to the attack, the defendant and her daughter fled the war in Ukraine to Ireland and stayed in a number of temporary accommodation premises.
Dr Church said his view was that, at the time of the attack, the defendant was suffering with an “adjustment disorder in addition to a personality disorder”, which “manifested in a severe response to her circumstances”.
He said he believed the defendant was suffering from a number of stresses, had poor coping skills, and suffered emotional outbursts.
Following her arrest, the defendant told Gardaí she stabbed her daughter multiple times and tried to strangle her.
The court heard that she told Gardaí she had been having suicidal thoughts at the time and had become paranoid that Tusla would take her daughter from her.
Defence witness Dr Paul O’Connell, a consultant forensic psychiatrist at the Central Mental Hospital, told the court that, in his opinion, the defendant was in the throes of a mental disorder at the time and that the accused was not aware at the time that what she was doing was wrong.
The accused’s barrister, senior counsel Mark Nicholas, told the jury that if they accepted the evidence of Dr O’Connell, they could consider that the accused was not guilty by reason of insanity.
The jury disagreed and took just over eight hours to deliver its unanimous guilty verdict. The woman will be sentenced on March 2.
Readers who may be affected by issues represented in this article or experiencing problems around mental wellbeing can contact Samaritans free of charge on 116 123.
– Court Reporting Scheme