Guilty plea eases burden on heart-broken mother

Neans McSweeney reports from Clonmel on the conclusion of a heart-rending case

CHRISTINE O’SULLIVAN closed her eyes and took a deep breath as the woman accused of helping to hide her child for close to two years approached the bench.

And as the tearful-accused swallowed deep and uttered the word guilty, the distraught mother exhaled.

A final chapter in the case which has consumed her life is now about to close. And the silence, which she has maintained since her only child was found dead 17-months ago, is about to end when 33-year-old Regina Nelligan is sentenced tomorrow.

Christine O’Sullivan will break her silence and tell of the nightmare she has endured since learning of her daughter’s death on August 31, 2001.

Her tale is one of a torturous ordeal which began when her former partner Christopher Crowley failed to return their four-year-old daughter Deirdre to her home on December 3, 1999.

The tragedy ended when Christopher shot his daughter dead and then turned the shotgun on himself.

Flanked by detectives from Cork and Dublin, Christine sat in court in Clonmel yesterday, watching the jury selection for other cases.

She was all too used to the torturous red tape, having sat through her daughter’s inquest as well as two earlier sittings of the case, one in

Tallow in west Waterford and another in the second courtroom in the same courthouse in Clonmel, Tipperary a couple of months ago.

Local gardaí stood in front of Ms O’Sullivan as she sat and listened, her chin buried in her lime green polo neck jumper, which she wore under an olive green trouser suit.

“I’ve nothing to say at this point,” she said yesterday as she made her way out of the courtroom yesterday.

As she left, she even managed a brief smile, before she was overcome with emotion and began to cry.

The relief she must have felt was palpable and the lost, sad stare was gone from her hazel brown eyes.

How she must have been thankful that Regina Nelligan entered a guilty plea yesterday, saving her, her family, Christopher Crowley’s family and the Nelligans the torture of a case which counsel say could have gone on for over a week, such was the volume of evidence in the case.

Nelligan sobbed quietly from the moment she entered court. The unemployed woman approached via the back door, avoiding those who gathered around Christine O’Sullivan along a side door, half way up the courtroom.

As her name was called, she emerged sheepishly from her mother’s side and nodded briefly to confirm her name.

She appeared as if she had been crying for several weeks. And she was a far different woman to the one who had been photographed at the earlier court appearances.

Her trademark black wig, glasses and baggy clothes were discarded this time.

Her waist-length black coat was hanging off her narrow shoulders and her face was made all the paler by the cream-coloured polo neck which she was wearing underneath.

Unlike others standing before the court, she remained standing by the door, away from the imposing dock at the top of the room.

The next 24 hours will be torturous for all concerned as sentencing looms.

For Christine, it should bring some closure to her trauma. However, for another family and for those close to Nelligan the nightmare is just about to begin as the threat of a prison term looms large.

In court yesterday, Nelligan of Carrignagroghera, Fermoy, Co Cork, pleaded guilty to the abduction of six-year-old Deirdre Crowley and that on dates between December 3, 1999 and August 31, 2001, she kept her from the lawful control of her mother, Christine O’Sullivan.