Fresh appeal for mother of dead foetus to come forward
The unidentified male foetus, of 26 weeks gestation, was discovered by two women cleaners in the toilet of a bathroom area of The Chelsea Hostel, Lower Gardiner Street, on August 10, 2007, an inquest at Dublin City Coroner’s Court heard yesterday.
One of the cleaners, Ada Raczek, who was working with Bisinska Katarzyna, went to put Domestos in one of the toilets when she made the grim discovery.
They immediately alerted management and gardaí were contacted.
The foetus was pronounced dead shortly after 1.30pm.
An extensive investigation was launched, with all of the guests interviewed by gardaí but, despite numerous appeals to the media, the mother has never been identified.
A postmortem by the Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis found that the male foetus, who weighed 560 grams, had no anatomical defects and the findings were consistent with an intra-uterine death or death in the womb.
The foetus had been dead for one to two days, and had never taken a breath.
“This was an intrauterine death which may have been spontaneously miscarried, but the precise circumstances have not been determined,” coroner Dr Brian Farrell told the inquest.
A Brazilian national who was a resident at the hostel — commonly used by people looking for work, as well as backpackers and tourists — had seen the foetus in the toilet in the early hours of the morning of August 10, and told a roommate, but they did not alert staff, said Detective Garda Martina Shiels of Store Street Garda Station.
Detective Inspector Kevin Dolan of Store Street Garda Station re-issued an appeal for the woman in question to come forward for help.
“We would still be appealing to the woman to come forward.
“There is nothing criminal here and we would give her every assistance in total confidence,” said Det Insp Dolan.
The coroner Dr Brian Farrell reiterated the Garda appeal.
