A Waterford woman who abandoned her new born child in a bin has been found guilty of manslaughter on Friday. The incident left the newborn dead after hours of not getting care, which the court found is the woman’s neglect.
The woman, who cannot be named due to legal reasons, gave birth to the child in a toilet in Caredoc centre while her visit to consult the doctor back in 2018. The pregnancy was believed to be unwanted and the accused was not ready to consult a doctor in the initial stages.
The woman came to the health centre with her mother and from the CCTV footage, she can be seen going into the toilet and returning after 13 minutes. Within the time, she gave birth to the baby and abandoned her in a bin.
But she didn’t tell anything about it to her mother nor the doctor and staged she was still pregnant. But later the doctors realized she was lying and informed the Garda. Upon questioning and search, the baby was discovered in a bin in the toilet, but had been dead without getting necessary care.
The eight member jury unanimously found the woman guilty and said it was not a defence argument that placing the baby in the bin as the pregnancy was an unwanted one. The jury also mentioned it is a mother’s legal responsibility to care for her child.
The woman will be sentence in January.
Source: The Waterford News & Star, additional reporting by Breaking News.ie.