Tragic boy, 4, ‘hidden from family to hide bruises’

A FOUR-YEAR-OLD boy was “kept out of sight” from his family to hide bruising on his face following a series of assaults before he died having been shaken by his stepmother, a barrister has told a murder trial at the Central Criminal Court.

- BY EOIN REYNOLDS

In her opening speech yesterday, Anne Rowland SC, for the DPP, said that the accused, a woman in her 30s from the southwest of the country, told gardai that the boy was a “bold cheeky child” and often had to be grounded.

She described keeping the boy in his room in the days prior to his death, where he had to sit on the floor and was only allowed out to go to the bathroom or for emergencies.

She told gardai 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.