Polish toddler dies from head injuries

GARDAÍ are awaiting the results of a post mortem after a three-year-old Polish girl died yesterday from injuries received in an incident at her Tralee home early on Wednesday.

The girl was on a life support machine in Kerry General Hospital’s intensive care unit and passed away at 3.23pm, the Health Service Executive confirmed.

A post-mortem examination is due to be carried out at the hospital today by Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster.

Gardaí were informed after the child was admitted to the hospital at around 3.30am on Wednesday with serious head injuries.

They are still investigating how the child came to receive her injuries.

Her parents and other members of her family were in the hospital when she lost her fight for life. It is understood she died without the life support machine being switched off.

Supt Pat Sullivan of Tralee said last night they would proceed to the next stage of the investigation when the results of the post mortem became available.

The child’s family have been in Tralee for more than three years and are living in a rented, two-storey house at the Killeen Woods estate, in the Oakpark area.

Gardaí have forensically examined the house, which was still sealed off yesterday. Door-to-door inquiries have been conducted in the quiet cul-de-sac and gardaí have spoken to a number of people during their probe.

The child’s father was out of the country at the time she was admitted to hospital, but he has since returned.

It is not known whether the child’s body will be taken to Poland for burial. Her name has not yet been released.

Meanwhile, gardaí yesterday said they are widening their search for the mother of a dead baby whose body was found in a waste recycling plant in West Limerick.

It was originally thought the baby’s body had been placed in a waste disposal skip which had been collected in Rathkeale and brought to the waste separation facility in Broadford where the body was uncovered.

Supt Tom Gavin of Newcastle West, who is leading the investigation, said yesterday that further inquiries had led to a widening of the search for the baby’s mother.

In Dublin, a man in his 20s is expected to be charged later today with abandoning a two-year-old girl on a DART train platform at Tara Street in Dublin. The man was captured leaving the baby in a buggy by CCTV footage.

A garda source said they were taking the incident “extremely seriously”.