Stepmum pleads guilty to murdering 4-year-old

Woman changes plea and will now face life after child witness' evidence

- BY EOIN REYNOLDS

A WOMAN who left her four-year-old stepson with injuries that would typically be associated with car crashes or serious assaults has pleaded guilty to the child's murder on the fourth day of her trial.

The woman, aged in her 30s, had pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter and was being tried before a jury at the Central Criminal Court.

After the evidence of a child witness was read into the record yesterday afternoon, the accused woman's barrister Michael Lynn SC asked for time with his client.

The accused was then arraigned on the charge that she murdered the four-year-old boy at her home in March 2021. She pleaded guilty to the single count.

Mr Justice Paul McDermott thanked the jury for their service and adjourned the matter until December 1 when the defendant will face the mandatory sentence for murder of life imprisonment.

She can't be named to protect the identity of the child witness.

The child's mother, who attended throughout the trial, will make a statement to the court before the sentence is passed.