THE TRAGIC stabbing of a two year old toddler at his Co Galway home in 1995 was recalled yesterday at an inquest into his death.
A Dutch national, Mr Jasper Kraus, told of being awakened by his mentally ill wife, Ann, on May 21st. She was holding a blood stained knife in her hand and she told him: "I stabbed Kevin".
He found the child lying in the kitchen and rushed him to nearby Portiuncula hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
A jury sitting with East Galway coroner, Dr Richard Joyce, returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence of the State Pathologist, Dr John Harbison, who found that the two year old died from bleeding into the chest as a result of a single stab wound to his left lung.
Kevin had been living in Ballinasloe with his Dutch father Irish mother and his five year old sister Virginia, after the family had moved from Holland the previous year. Mr Kraus told the inquest of his wife's mental illness following Kevin's birth, which had resulted in her being hospitalised in Holland and in Ballinasloe.
He told how on occasions she had become suicidal. Once she had taken a meat knife, placed it against her breast and said she wanted to die. She had told doctors that she was having difficulty handling their two children.
Nurse Ethel Leonard told how a man burst into casualty at the hospital carrying a child whose upper clothes were saturated in blood. The child was later pronounced dead and was baptised by the hospital chaplain.
Garda Theo Hanley told of receiving a phone call from Mr Kraus in hospital saying his wife had stabbed their son with a knife. He went to their home at Brackernagh, where they found a knife and blood on the kitchen floor.
Mrs Kraus pointed to the floor and said, "There's the blood". She was continually stamping her feet. She was shivering and her hands kept shaking. Her left wrist appeared to be slashed and they decided that she was in need of medical attention.
Garda Hanley stated that at the hospital Mrs Kraus said she was sorry for what she had done and she wanted to know if she would go to jail.
Her husband came in in a distressed state. He kissed her on the forehead and put his arms around her. She told him she was sorry for stabbing the child and she asked if he had forgiven her. He told her they would have to be strong and for her to go to hospital and get better.
Garda Hanley said he was present when Mrs Kraus was taken to St Brigid's psychiatric hospital where she was detained. Expressing sympathy to the family, the coroner described the child's death as a "tragic accident".