Doctors 'gasped' when they saw four-year-old's injuries, court hears

A consultant intensive care doctor who gave evidence said the injuries the boy suffered would usually be associated with a crash where a car hits a wall, or a fall from a 'very significant height'

The child’s stepmother, a woman in her 30s from the South-West, has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the boy’s manslaughter in March 2021. Picture: iStock

When doctors pulled back the drapes to review the injuries of a four-year-old boy who, it is alleged, was murdered by his stepmother, “the whole theatre gasped”, the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday.

Stephen O’Riordan, a consultant paediatrician, said the child had significant bruises “from head to toe” which were consistent with physical abuse or non-accidental injuries.