A CORONER has appealed for anyone who can help a Garda investigation into the death of a 10-day-old baby to come forward. The death is being treated as murder.
Coroner Ronan Maguire was speaking at Drogheda Coroner’s Court yesterday. The court heard the boy died from a heavy blow.
State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy concluded that death was due to head injuries sustained by blunt trauma to the head. She carried out a postmortem on Johnny McCarthy, who had lived at Academy Square, Navan, on January 8th last year.
The inquest was previously adjourned to allow his parents to travel from Britain, where they live.
Yesterday, Det Insp Gus Keane from Balbriggan Garda station, who is in charge of the investigation, told the court he had been in touch with the police in Birmingham, who had spoken to the baby’s parents. Registered letters had also been sent to both parents informing them of the inquest.
The parents’ solicitors were also told, but Det Insp Keane said the response via the British police was that they were not coming back for the inquest.
However, Det Insp Keane asked for the inquest to be adjourned, saying they may return at a later date. He told Mr Maguire the investigation was ongoing.
The infant was pronounced dead at 6.05am on January 8th last year at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda – where he was born on December 29th.
He was brought there from a house in Lusk a few hours earlier.
The death was treated as murder and an investigation was opened by gardaí at Balbriggan. As part of the investigation, eight people were arrested, some on suspicion of withholding information.
Last year, a file was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) by gardaí. The DPP decided not to instigate a prosecution.
Yesterday, Mr Maguire said he had sufficient evidence to issue a death certificate and expressed his sympathy to those “who suffered the loss” of the infant.
The inquest was then adjourned, for the fourth time, to a date to be set later this year.