Cork woman pretended to be abused child in malicious calls to gardaí

The calls were made between 4.37am and 6.25am on February 14 last year and were patched through to Anglesea St Garda Station. File picture

A woman made malicious 999 calls in which she claimed to be a young girl suffering physical and sexual abuse, leading to gardaí temporarily removing the children from the care of their mother.

Samantha Kennedy, aged 31, admitted making 10 such 999 calls over the space of two hours and said: "If I could take it back I would."

The calls were made between 4.37am and 6.25am on February 14 last year and were patched through to Anglesea St Garda Station.

Sgt Trish O'Sullivan told Bandon District Court that in the calls, purporting to be from a young girl, it was claimed that the two girls were suffering physical and sexual abuse.

The two children were actually living with their mother in Midleton but Sgt O'Sullivan said that due to the nature of the calls, by a person identifying themselves as one of the named children, gardaí invoked Section 12 powers and removed the children from the family home.

They were brought to Cork University Hospital and examined and were found to have been unharmed.

Gardai then downloaded the 999 calls having determined that they were malicious and that in fact they had not been made by a child but by an adult "putting on a child's voice", Sgt O'Sullivan said.

The investigation led to Ms Kennedy, who, the court heard, was in a relationship at that time with the biological father of one of the children.

Deliberate act

The judge commented that this was a deliberate act by Ms Kennedy and Sgt O'Sullivan said: "It was pointed."

She told Judge Colm Roberts that after caution Ms Kennedy made full admissions that she had made all the calls and that they were false.

Ms Kennedy, of apartment 1, Main St in Ballineen in Co Cork, had 10 previous convictions and in addition to the charges relating to the malicious calls she was also facing two public order charges. Her previous convictions included six for assault.

Her solicitor, Myra Dinneen, said reports before the courts helped to explain but not excuse Ms Kennedy's behaviour and highlighted difficulties she had faced in her own life.

The Judge fined her for the two public order offences and placed her on a probation bond for one year but he said he regarded the other matters involving the malicious calls as "far more serious".

They should merit a custodial sentence because of the seriousness and the cruelty of the actions," he said.

speaking to Ms Dinneen he said: "This was your client pretending to be a child who was being abused."

Ms Kennedy said: "I feel really bad for doing it, your honour. If I could take it back I would."

Judge Roberts imposed sentences of five months and three months in relation to the calls, both suspended for two years, and placed her under the supervision of the Probation Service.

"The idea of ringing gardaí when they are extremely busy, and then pre-planned, speaking in a child's voice," the judge said. "You did it several times. That is pre-planned."

Ms Kennedy told the judge that she faced being evicted in three weeks. The judge advised her to contact the RTB or Threshold.