‘By the grace of God, my baby was not killed’

A miracle spared the life of a baby boy whose buggy was blown from his mother’s hands and pinned between a wall and a car in Ballintemple in Cork city.

The infant’s mother yesterday relived “agonising and terrifying moments” as a cannabis-smoking driver was jailed for five years.

The mother produced a photograph of the boy who was only six months old, at the time. She wanted the judge to see the image.

She also wanted the driver, Shane Murphy, aged 30, of 213 Comeragh Park, The Glen, Cork, to view it.

Murphy, at the dock, took the photograph in his hands, then faced the child’s mother in Cork Circuit Criminal Court and said: “I am sorry, I am really sorry.”

He and his female passenger ignored cries for help from the mother as the infant screamed hysterically. They took some items from the car and fled. Earlier that day, Murphy stole Yankee candles and protein pills and smoked cannabis.

Judge Gerard O’Brien told Murphy he was lucky he had not killed the child and the mother.

In a victim impact statement, the mother said: “As we walked along happily and innocently nothing would ever prepare me for what happened next. A car came from behind and mounted the footpath at a ferocious speed knocking into a parked car and blew me to the footpath and swept the buggy with my precious baby from my hands and out of sight.

“In those agonising and terrorising moments, I believed he was gone from my life forever. I didn’t believe he could possibly survive such a blow to his precious little body.

“He was completely pinned to the wall in the now completely crushed buggy. Although I could see he was alive, I couldn’t tell if his precious little body was crushed to pieces. He was utterly terrified and cried uncontrollably in a way I had never heard before and that I will never forget for the rest of my life.

“A mother’s job is to protect her young from harm and I couldn’t do that for [name] that day.

“We were told in hospital he had a hairline fracture in his skull. I still feel sick to my stomach almost every day when I think about it.

“It was by the grace of God that [name] was not killed on the day. A small gap between the pole and the wall saved his life.

“He [Shane Murphy, the accused] almost took away the most precious person in our lives because of his selfish and cowardly behaviour that day. He has also left me with a horrific memory that will stay with me forever.”

The judge acknowledged there was genuine remorse but said it was too serious a case. He imposed a six-year sentence with the last year suspended, on a charge of dangerous driving causing serious harm.

The family thanked the kindness of strangers who came to their assistanceas well as medical personnel and gardaí, in particular Garda John Paul Twomey.

Garda Twomey testified yesterday that the mother and child were on the footpath at 4.15pm on March 8 when Murphy drove the car into a parked car which was forced onto the footpath, pinning the buggy with the infant in it to the wall. Murphy and the woman with him fled. He was arrested later.

Donal McCarthy, defending, said Murphy said he left the scene because he was shocked and later expressed remorse.

Judge O’Brien said it was worrying the accused had two previous hit and run convictions among his 184 previous convictions.