A mother of six, charged with failing to obtain treatment for her baby who was burnt as a result of crawling into an open fireplace, will have to be tried in the Circuit Court, Judge John Coughlan ruled yesterday.
The woman (37), who cannot be named to protect the child, was charged with neglecting the 16-month-old boy at the family home in Ballyfermot, Dublin, on December 16th, 2005, in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury.
Dublin District Court heard gardaí were called by social services to the home where they found five children downstairs and the injured baby boy upstairs on a mattress. There were burns to his fingertips and scalp which had been left untreated since the incident occurred two to three days earlier.
Having read a medical report on the child and after hearing the maximum prison sentence on conviction in the District Court is 12 months, the judge refused jurisdiction. The case will now have to go for trial in the Circuit Court where the maximum prison sentence that can be imposed is seven years.
The judge remanded the woman to June 25th for preparation of a book of evidence. He also adjourned a separate charge of possession of heroin at the family home on February 24th last year. The court heard all the children were taken into care after gardaí went to the house on December 16th, 2005.