Alison O'Riordan
A 39-year-old mother has applied to the Central Criminal Court to dismiss two charges against her for the attempted murder of her 18-month-old twin sons at her home in Dublin.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is charged with attempting to murder her two young sons on October 9th, 2019 at her home.
She is also accused of intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to one of the two children on the same date.
Kitchen knife
The accused woman is further charged with producing an article capable of inflicting serious injury in the course of a dispute, to wit a large kitchen knife, in a manner likely unlawfully to intimidate another person on the same occasion.
In addition, the defendant is charged with falsely imprisoning a woman on the same date.
Defence counsel Anne Rowland SC, for the accused, told the court on Monday that her client was only making the application under Section 4E of the Criminal Justice Act 1999 in relation to the two attempted murder charges. A Section 4E application is for the dismissal of a charge against an accused.
The court heard submissions from Ms Rowland and Sean Guerin SC made submissions on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
The court heard that the defendant's trial is expected to take place at the Central Criminal Court in October.
Mr Justice Michael MacGrath said he will rule on the application on July 29th.
Section 252 of the Children Act, 2001 prohibits the identification of child victims and makes it an offence to publish anything that could identify a child who is an alleged victim of an offence.
