Baby’s inquest told assault led to early birth
At Dublin Coroner’s Court, Gillian Mills claimed her ex-partner Darren Byrne deliberately sat on her back when she was 21 weeks’ pregnant causing the membrane of the amniotic sac protecting the foetus to rupture prematurely.
Mr Byrne has strenuously denied the allegation.
They were giving evidence at the inquest into the death of baby Darren Mills, from Fettercairn in Tallaght, Dublin, who died just hours after being born at the Coombe Hospital on Dec 4, 2008.
The postmortem found the baby died as a result of hypoxic brain injury — caused by a lack of oxygen passing through the placenta — and pneumonia due to an infection which came about as a result of the premature rupture.
Giving evidence, Ms Mills said three days before she presented at the Coombe on Oct 30, 2008, Mr Byrne assaulted her when she asked him to stop taking heroin. He pushed her “against the wall by the head of the hair”, she said, before pressing her face against the sofa. He then sat on her on her back “like I was an animal” until she fell to her knees, she said.
Mr Byrne was “frothing at the mouth” and when she was on her knees, she said he spat in her face.
Ms Mills went to hospital three days later when she realised her “waters” were leaking.
There was a heated exchange in court as Ms Mills spoke, with Mr Byrne storming out of the inquest while shouting “fuck her”. He returned to deny under oath that any assault had taken place.
“Lies. There is no truth in it. I never sat on her,” he said.
Consultant obstetrician Dr Hugh O’Connor said pregnancies can continue for a number of weeks after rupture but a baby is left open to infection.
Ms Mills gave birth on Dec 4.
However, baby Darren survived for just five and a half hours.
Former master at Holles Street Dr Peter Boylan said “on the balance of probabilities” the rupture could have been “precipitated or caused” by the assault as described by Ms Mills.
However, he said that, while uncommon, it is possible for the membrane to rupture spontaneously at 21 weeks. Ms Mills had already had two uneventful pregnancies which made this less likely, he said.
Garda Deirdre McMenamin said Ms Mills told her about the alleged assault in a private conversation the day after the baby’s death but subsequently refused to make a statement of complaint. The matter was investigated twice by gardaí with files sent to the Director of Public Prosecution who returned directions of no prosecution on both occasions.
Summing up for the jury, coroner Dr Brian Farrell pointed to the “serious conflict” in the evidence given by Ms Mills and Mr Byrne saying that it could not be resolved by the inquest.
The jury returned an open verdict.
Ms Mills shouted “You should be ashamed of yourself” at the jury as they left the courtroom. As gardaí attempted to calm her down, she said: “My son died for nothing, he died in agony for nothing”.
