She Dressed the Kids in Best Clothes
By MICHAEL DOYLE
A MOTHER of five who drowned her baby son and tried to kill her daughter was yesterday found guilty but insane.
Anguished Mary Collins, 31, claimed she heard voices in her head urging her to kill herself and her children so they could "enter the next life and live in peace", the Central Criminal Court was told.
In July 2002, she dressed her 11-month-old son Liam and three- year-old daughter Teresa in their best clothes and pushed their twin buggy over the quay wall in Westport, Co Mayo, before jumping in after them.
They were rescued after spending 20 minutes in the water.
Liam was given CPR before he was taken to Mayo General Hospital but he had suffered brain damage and never recovered consciousness.
He later developed pneumonia and died on January 16, 2003.
Collins told gardai she suffered years of beatings from her husband Paddy and wanted to "end it all" because she "couldn’t cope any more with the physical and mental torture".
Collins, from Parnell Court in Westport, pleaded not guilty to the murder of little Liam on January 16, 2003 and the attempted murder of Teresa on July 29, 2002.
The jury didn’t leave the box as they found her guilty but insane after three expert witnesses said she had a severe disease of the mind and suffered from a form of schizophrenia.
Mr Justice Paul Carney told them that a finding of guilty but insane had the same find ing in law as an acquittal.
He directed that Collins be detained in Dublin’s Central Mental Hospital until "the pleasure of the Government be known". Garda John Flana gan told the court that Collins initially claimed the buggy had slipped into the sea after one of its wheels came off but later admitted it wasn’t an accident. In a statement she said: "I told myself we were all going to heaven." When they were rescued by a ladies football team playing a match nearby, the accused was face down in the water and her son Liam was also submerged.
Teresa, who had managed to stay afloat by hanging on to the buggy, was screaming for help. Dr Harry Kennedy, the director of the Central Mental Hospital, said he examined Collins last March and found that she came within all the three definitions of insanity.
He revealed that three months before the tragic event, Collins had been admitted to Mayo General Hospital showing signs and symp toms of the most serious mental illness – formal schizophrenia. Dr Kennedy said she would not have been able to understand the consequences of her action and would have believed that what she was doing was right.
The court heard that within six weeks of her arranged marriage, she claimed Paddy had started to beat her and she was admitted for psychiatric treatment after she took an overdose.
In a statement to gardai in November 2003, Collins detailed a history of beatings she claimed to have received from her husband.
She alleged when she was six months pregnant, Paddy had beaten her with a stick across the stomach and that he had later taken a hammer, dragged her out of their caravan in Ballina and hit her with it.
She told doctors at Mayo General Hospital that she was worried about the baby. A nurse urged her to report the attack to the gardai but she did not.
Collins told gardai being married to Paddy was like living in hell and she was happier when she was living on her own with her children.
The court heard that she had a mental break down and was admitted to the psychiatric unit of Mayo General Hospital on April 13, 2002.
She was discharged on April 22 but readmit ted a day later after she drank a cup of washing-up liquid at home and became sick.
She spent a further five weeks in hospital and was discharged on May 29, 2002 – exactly two months before the tragic events.
Her husband Paddy attended the hearing. The Court heard he had been very supportive of her since the tragedy and had brought her out of hospital a number of times.
michael.doyle@irishmirror.ie