Dublin parents face child cruelty trial as jury deliberates

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

A Dublin couple have pleaded not guilty to two charges of assault causing serious harm and three charges of child cruelty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. The proceedings were reported on 28 October 2021.

The couple cannot be named to protect their daughter’s identity. The charges concern alleged events at the family home between 28 June and 2 July 2019. The child was found unconscious on 2 July 2019 and was left dependent on carers for basic daily needs.

The jury began deliberating on the trial’s twelfth day after Judge Martin Nolan directed it on the law. Jurors asked about the father’s alleged role in a joint plan with the mother. The judge said everyone in the case agreed that the father was not present at the house at the time of the alleged serious assault that rendered the child unconscious.

Judge Nolan said the prosecution alleged that the father acted in a joint enterprise with the mother to change the child’s behaviour through physical chastisement. He told jurors to decide whether the mother caused the brain injury by assaulting the child and whether her actions fell within the alleged shared plan.