A knife-wielding mother “soaked” her infant son in boiling water and said, “I want to kill my children and myself” while falsely imprisoning a social worker, the Central Criminal Court heard today.
The court also heard a victim statement from the social worker at today’s sentencing hearing, where she said she was kept awake at night by the “vivid images” of the 18-month-old victim’s skin peeling off his “raw and pink ‘ face and his high-pitched screams.
The social worker had blocked a door to try to prevent the mother from getting close to the children and later sat down between the mother and her two boys before leading them to safety, the court also heard.
The accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was originally charged with two attempted murders of her two sons, then 18 months old, on October 9, 2019 at her home. She failed to have the attempted murder charge against her dismissed last year.
Last month, the accused pleaded guilty before the Central Criminal Court to intentionally or recklessly inflicting serious harm on one of the two children on the same date. She further pleaded guilty to producing a “large kitchen knife,” in a manner likely to unlawfully intimidate another on the same occasion.
She also admitted to falsely imprisoning a female social worker on the same date and location.
At the beginning of today’s hearing, Prosecutor Sean Guerin SC told Mr. David Keane that there are five counts to the charge. He added that the first two counts are attempted murder involving the suspect’s twin sons. Mr Guerin said that a nolle prosequi on these two points will be introduced at the end of the criminal trial.
Mr Guerin said that IOUs were filed in June on the remaining three counts and that they were acceptable to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on the basis of full facts.
Guerin outlined the events leading up to the incident and said a female social worker was monitoring the two boys, who were in foster care at the time, at the suspect’s home on Oct. 9.
Garda Aisling Carroll told Mr Guerin that the social worker arrived at the suspect’s address at 9.15 am, where she met the 18-month-old twin boys, who had been in foster care since birth.
Mr Guerin said access arrangements had recently been changed and the accused mother had supervised access to the boys in her home for four hours once a week.
At about 10:30 a.m., one of the boys was in the living room with the social worker and the other boy in the kitchen with the suspect.
Feeling something was wrong, the social worker went to the kitchen and found the suspect in the hallway. The boy stood soaking wet by the kitchen door and looked startled.
Knowing something wasn’t right, the social worker lifted the boy and felt he was “broiling hot”. As she did this, the suspect had a long carving knife in her hand and said, “I want to kill my children.”
While the social worker called 911, the suspect tried to make his way into the living room when the boys became hysterical.
It was then that the social worker noticed blisters on the boy’s face and realized that boiling water had been poured over the child.
Guerin said the suspect then forced the living room door, held the knife to her chest, and said twice, “I want to kill my children and myself.”
The social worker tried to take the knife from the suspect, but she wouldn’t let go.
When the suspect entered the room with the knife, the social worker placed herself and the couch between the suspect and the boys. The telephone line to the emergency services was open at the time and the call appeared to have lasted 15 minutes.
The boy who had poured the kettle of water on him wept hysterically and his face was raw and pink, the court heard.
The suspect looked at her son and said, “I want to kill my children, I want to kill myself and why did I do that to my children?”
The social worker managed to distract the suspect long enough to open the door and get herself and the two children out of the house.
When Gardaí arrived, the suspect stood in front of her house with the knife in her hand and said several times, “I tried to kill my babies, I wanted to kill myself.”
The suspect was later admitted to psychiatric care at Tallaght Hospital, where she stayed for a week.
She later told gardaí in interviews that she had a mental problem, that she had not taken her medication and that her mood was very low.
The boy was taken to Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, where he was treated by a plastic surgeon. About 18 percent of his total body surface has permanent scars and he has been in the hospital for almost a month.
Mr Guerin said the child’s burns were deep, he had significant disfiguring scars on his face and it would not be possible to tell until his late teens whether he will need another surgery.
The garda said the suspect, a mother of five, had lived in Ireland for 16 years and was originally from Congo. She had custody of her three older children, but her twin sons had been placed in foster care shortly after they were born.
The court heard that the woman had no previous convictions, but had been detained several times under the Mental Health Act 2004.
In her victim statement, the foster mother of the twin boys said October 9 was a day they will never forget. She said her husband dropped the boys off at their birth mother’s house, and that they were clingy and anxious and didn’t want to go.
“He left the children with the social worker not knowing what would happen. To this day my husband feels so guilty. I got a call that there was a boiling water incident,” she added.
She said the boy’s brother no longer recognized him as his twin sister and it was like he was a “stranger to him, like he was afraid of him”.
In a second victim statement, the social worker said her life has changed significantly since that day and she will not be able to return to work. She said she suffered from flashbacks, insomnia and PTSD.
During a cross-examination, the garda agreed with defense counsel, Anne Rowland SC, that her client spent most of the first two years of the twins’ lives in a psychiatric hospital and that she was on her antipsychotic medication for three years. hadn’t taken for days. prior to the incident.
Ms Rowland said her client wanted to express her sincere apologies and regrets to the social worker, her own child and the foster parents. “She is extremely grateful that he is lucky enough to have this couple who are so kind and caring to him and his brother,” she added.
As a mitigating circumstance, Ms. Rowland said the defense of insanity was not available to the accused because of the high threshold, but asked the court to pay particular attention to her client’s psychiatric history. She said the suspect suffers from a combination of acute depressive symptoms and mild intellectual disability.
Another factor in the mitigation, she said, was that she had been hospitalized eight times since the birth of her children in 2018.
Justice Keane has kept the woman in custody until October 6, after which she will be sentenced.