A 40-year-old mother who was charged with attempting to murder her infant twin sons at her home in Dublin has pleaded guilty to causing serious harm to one son, the false imprisonment of a social worker, and the production of a "large kitchen knife".
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was charged with two counts of attempted murder against her two sons, then 18-month-olds, on October 9th, 2019 at her home.
She failed in a bid to have the attempted murder charges against her dismissed last year.
At the Central Criminal Court on Friday, she pleaded guilty to intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to one of the two children on the same date.
She further pleaded guilty to producing an article capable of inflicting serious injury in the course of a dispute, to wit a "large kitchen knife", in a manner likely to unlawfully intimidate another person on the same occasion.
False imprisonment
In addition, she admitted falsely imprisoning a female social care worker on the same date and location.
The woman appeared in court before Ms Justice Tara Burns on Friday and replied "guilty" to the three charges when they were read to her by the court registrar.
Before she was arraigned on the three charges, her barrister, Anne Rowland SC, said her client could proceed with matters without the aid of an interpreter.
Ms Justice Burns adjourned the case to July 27th, when she is to be sentenced and a psychological report is to be presented to the court.
In July 2021, the woman applied to the Central Criminal Court to dismiss two of the charges against her.
At that hearing, Ms Rowland told the court her client was only making the application under Section 4E of the Criminal Justice Act 1999 in relation to the two attempted murder charges.
The court heard submissions from Ms Rowland, and Sean Guerin SC made submissions on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Mr Justice Michael MacGrath refused the application.
