Four-year-old boy murdered by stepmother was kept in his room for days

The defendant, who faces the mandatory term of life imprisonment for murder, will reappear before [Ireland's] Central Criminal Court on January 12.

The child’s mother will be given the opportunity to make a statement on that date. Prosecutor Anne Rowland told Judge Paul McDermott the child’s mother, who attended every day of the trial, was anxious to attend the sentencing hearing.

She said the mother is "unwell" and asked for an adjournment. The defendant cannot be identified to protect the anonymity of a child whose statement was read out in court prior to the accused entering her guilty plea.

After the adjournment was granted, barrister Ronan Kennedy told the court he appears for RTÉ, the Irish Times and Mediahuis, which owns the Irish Independent.

Mr Kennedy said the media wishes to make submissions regarding the anonymity of the accused. The judge adjourned that hearing, also to January 12.

The defendant initially pleaded not guilty to the boy’s murder but guilty to manslaughter.

On the fourth day of her trial, after the child’s statement had been read for the jury, she pleaded guilty to the boy’s murder on March 16, 2021, at a house in the southwest of the country.

In her opening speech, Ms Rowland said the defendant described to gardaí keeping the boy in his room the days prior to his death, where he had to sit on the floor and was only allowed out to the bathroom or for emergencies.

The defendant said the boy was a ‘bold, cheeky child’ and often had to be grounded. She told gardaí that on the day the boy suffered his fatal injuries, she "snapped" and recalled "shaking him and screaming at him to behave" before he fell on the floor.

In November 2024, the child’s father was sentenced to seven years in prison having pleaded guilty to endangerment, neglect and impeding the apprehension or prosecution of the stepmother, knowing or believing she had murdered his son.

Passing sentence at the time, Judge McDermott described his actions as "shameful" and said he bore a high level of criminal responsibility for failing to nurture and protect his son.

Authorities first became aware of the abuse against the child when his father called 999 on March 13, 2021, claiming the boy had injured his head by falling off the top bunk of a bunk bed.

An advanced paramedic who was first on the scene said he met the child’s father halfway up the stairs.

Inside an upstairs bedroom, he saw the child lying on his side on the floor in the foetal position with his head resting on a pillow. The paramedic noted "yellowish" bruising, suggesting older injuries, and a bump or haematoma on the back of the head.

When asked about the older bruises, the father said the child had previously run into a door. The father said the child had been "bold, acting up and was grounded and confined to his bedroom".

The paramedic said he didn’t want to waste time so he took the boy in his arms and carried him to the ambulance.

Dr Stephen O’Riordan told the trial he was called in to review the child’s case after he had been brought to a second hospital by ambulance.

He described how the "whole theatre gasped" when they pulled back the drapes and saw the child, covered in bruises.

He documented 17 areas of bruising or injury to both eyes, the ears, arms, legs and back. A consultant intensive care doctor said the head injuries the boy suffered would usually be associated with a crash where a car hits a wall.

* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.