A woman who caused the death of her eight-week-old son and attempted to murder her two-year-old daughter will be sentenced next week.
The 34-year-old, who cannot be named due to reporting restrictions, appeared at Belfast Crown Court on Tuesday.
Prosecuting barrister Samuel Magee told the court of the “important context of events” leading to the fatal incident on July 27th, 2021.
He said the woman contacted the PSNI to report a domestic incident on July 24th, 2021. She alleged her partner had pushed her and said she felt unsafe. The man was later arrested and removed from the family home.
Three days later, the woman wrote a series of diary entries. She said her partner had left to be with another woman, did not care for her or the children, and that she had chosen to take their lives so no one would mock them any more. The entries also included expressions of love for her partner and a reference to waiting in heaven for him.
On the evening of the incident, Magee said the woman called her partner – who was in England – to say she loved him and that she had killed their son. She also said their daughter was “lying slowly bleeding” and she planned to take her own life.
The man contacted English police, who alerted the PSNI. The woman had called the PSNI and said she had killed her children.
When police arrived at 8.15pm, they found the woman, who was bleeding, cradling her wounded daughter, who was screaming. The baby, who appeared lifeless, was lying on a bed in the room, and when officers attempted CPR, the woman stated: “I wouldn’t worry about him. He’s dead. I stabbed him.”
The court heard both children were rushed to the Royal Victoria Hospital for Sick Children. Magee said the boy had sustained two wounds to his chest, one of which penetrated his heart, and was pronounced dead at 9pm. Counsel said the girl sustained “grave injuries” and was “fortunate to survive”.
Following her arrest, the woman was taken to hospital to be treated for injuries. She was brought into custody two days later after being discharged and stated: “I killed my children… I’m really sorry for what I have done.”
The court heard a consultant forensic psychiatrist examined the accused and concluded she was suffering from an abnormality arising from a depressive episode. The expert said giving birth and postnatal effects were additional and significant stressors.
The woman pleaded guilty to her daughter’s attempted murder and admitted causing the death of a child aged under 12 months by a wilful act, stabbing, but at a time when the balance of her mind was disturbed by reason of the fact she had not fully recovered from the effect of giving birth to the child.
The court heard the woman’s daughter is in foster care and intensive work has been carried out to explain why she had not seen her baby brother and mother.
Magee said aggravating factors in the case included the breach of trust and the vulnerability of the children. He said it was accepted that their mother was “suffering from depression” and was in a “coercively controlling relationship” at the time.
Defence barrister Charles MacCreanor said his client “has never stopped punishing herself for what she did” and this is likely to remain the case for the rest of her life.
He said there was no evidence she had been “anything other than a loving, caring mother” until July 27th, 2021, and that she felt “remorse, shame and confusion” over what she did.
Counsel said the woman has spent more than five years in prison since the incident and has not received any visits aside from her solicitor and a representative of Woman’s Aid.
MacCreanor said the woman was a victim of physical, financial and sexual abuse at the hands of her partner, who has since died. He added that she “was scared” of the man, who had a lengthy criminal record and a history of domestic incidents.
The judge said he would pass sentence next Tuesday.
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