Child abuse trial – Couple guilty on all charges

By Declan Brennan

A married couple have been convicted of the neglect and cruelty of their daughter who has been left  dependent on carers for the rest of her life after suffering catastrophic brain damage.

The Dublin based 39-year-old man and his 36-year-old wife had pleaded not guilty to two charges of assault causing serious harm and three charges of child cruelty at the family home in Dublin on dates between June 28 and July 2, 2019.

The parents are originally from north Africa but came here some years ago. They cannot be named to protect the anonymity of the child. The jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts on all counts.

The jury heard evidence that at one stage the father told a detective that he carried out a ritual to get a “devil” to leave the child’s body.

After a 12 day trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, a jury of six men and five women found each parent guilty of all counts. Judge Martin Nolan thanked the jury for their service.

He remanded the couple in continuing custody until their sentence date on January 24, 2022.

The charge of intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to the child on July 2, 2019 relates to the brain damage suffered as a result of a trauma to the head carried out on that date.

The trial heard medical evidence that the brain injuries were a result of a combination of blunt force trauma and violent shaking of the head.

One medical expert said that bruising around the face were indicative of blows to the face such as caused by punching. He said the child suffered swelling of the brain and subdural haematoma, or bleeding between the skull and the brain surface, and had bleeding in both eyes.

The injuries to the head were the cause of the child losing consciousness and ultimately suffering permanent neurological damage.

The couple also stand convicted of intentionally or recklessly causing serious disfigurement to the child, causing her serious harm, on occasions between June 28 and July 2 2019. This charge relates   to multiple bruises, bite marks and burns found on the child after she was hospitalised on July 2.

Two of the neglect charges relate to each parent allowing the other to assault the child. The final charge is one of wilful neglect of the child in a manner likely to cause her unnecessary suffering or injury to her health or seriously to effect her well-being by failing to provide adequate medical aid.

The victim’s sister testified that she saw her sister unconscious and naked at around 11.30am in the morning and that her mother said she thought her sister was dead.

Her mother called the father at work at around 1.30pm and on this video call she said “I told you I was going to kill her, why didn’t you stop me?”

The father arrived home from work shortly after 3pm, but only called an ambulance at 10pm.

He and his wife later lied to doctors and gardaí claimed that he had only arrived home that evening. They also claimed the girl’s head injuries came from a fall from her bike days earlier and a fall in the shower that day. Medical experts said the injuries were consistent with non-accidental injury.

During the garda investigation, the father told a detective that he wanted his daughter to be happy so he contacted a Morrocan friend who is a ruqyah, an Islamic faith healer.

The father told this man his daughter was not sleeping or eating and that she was saying “that the djinn was inside her”, referring to the Islamic idea of a djinn or spirit.