Postmortem on stillborn baby of assaulted mother not conclusive

Gardaí investigating an alleged assault on a pregnant woman in Kerry say further tests are required to establish whether the assault caused her baby to be stillborn.

Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster carried out a postmortem at University Hospital Limerick on Wednesday on the body of the infant who was delivered stillborn at University Hospital Kerry.

Gardaí have said the postmortem has not been conclusive and further tests are required to try and establish if the still birth of the baby was related to the assault on the woman.

It is understood that tests of tissue samples taken at postmortem and sent away for analysis will take several weeks but gardaí are hoping the tests will provide some clarity on the matter.

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Meanwhile, gardaí have confirmed that they have taken a formal statement of complaint from the 29-year-old woman about the alleged assault by a man near her home in north Kerry on Saturday night.

The woman, who was 32-weeks pregnant at the time, was taken by ambulance to University Hospital Kerry in Tralee where she gave birth to a stillborn baby girl some hours later.

Gardaí said they are treating the incident as one of domestic violence and they later arrested a a 25-year-old man for questioning about the assault.

The man, from North Kerry, was detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act which allows gardaí detain suspects for up 24 hours. He was released on Monday without charge.

A Garda source said the investigation will also involve gardaí speaking to the woman’s gynaecologist to see if there were any issues with her pregnancy prior to the assault on Saturday night.

“It’s a complex case but the matter will be investigated fully and a file including the postmortem results and other tests will be sent to the DPP who will decide what charges are to be brought,” the source said.