A pregnant woman has appeared in court charged with the murder of a two-year-old girl at an apartment in Cork city last month.
Karen Harrington (35) appeared at a special sitting of Cork District Court on Wednesday charged in connection with the death of Santina Cawley, who was found with serious injuries at Elderwood Park, Boreenmanna Road on July 5th.
Det Garda Cormac Crotty gave evidence of the arrest charge and caution of Ms Harrington, who was arrested at 7.56am at a house in Lakeland Crescent, Mahon.
He said Ms Harrington replied: “I don’t understand why I am getting charged. I didn’t murder no one”.
Paula McCarthy BL, for Ms Harrington, asked that her client receive the necessary medical assistance in custody as she is 4½ months pregnant.
Judge Mary Dorgan directed that this be provided to Ms Harrington.
Free legal aid was granted in the case after a statement of means was handed in to Judge Dorgan.
An application for bail will be made at the High Court at a later date.
Ms Harrington did not speak during the short hearing which was attended by Santina’s parents Bridget O’Donoghue and Michael Cawley.
Ms Harrington, with an address at Elderwood Park, Boreenmanna Road, was remanded in custody until August 26th.
Santina was found with critical injuries and taken by ambulance to Cork University Hospital (CUH) where she died a few hours later. A postmortem was carried out but the results were not released for operational reasons.