A 36-year-old mother of nine has lost her claim for damages after she sued the State for negligence over the death of her four-month-old baby who died from sudden infant death syndrome just days after she was arrested and imprisoned for motoring offences.
Kathleen O'Driscoll, a member of the Travelling Community was suing the State following the death of her four month old son, Thomas who died on April 7th 1999 while she was in Limerick Prison.
Pearse Sreenan, Mrs O'Driscoll's barrister said Thomas died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and while his client couldn't claim that the State was responsible for Thomas's death, she did believe that, had she not been in prison but at home to care her infant son, he would not have died.
Mrs O'Driscoll had been arrested on Good Friday, April 2nd, 1999 on a warrant arising out of a series of convictions for motoring offences in May and July 1997.
Judge Patrick Moran said he was satisfied that there was no evidence to suggest that the State was responsible for the baby's death while he also believed there had been no duty on the gardai to contact a social worker when executing the warrants.