Beautiful, clever, happy, and caring boy murdered by 'pure evil', says mother

Mr Justice McDermott will sentence the boy's stepmother on Wednesday to the mandatory term of life imprisonment for murder

The Criminal Courts of Justice, building in Parkgate Street, Dublin, Ireland. The court heard on Monday that the defendant has no previous convictions. File picture

The mother of a "beautiful, clever, happy and caring" four-year-old boy, who was murdered by his stepmother, has said her son's life was taken through the "pure evil" of a woman the boy loved and trusted.

The child's mother said she thinks of her son "crying for help, not understanding what was happening" and said she knows the child would have been frightened and looking for her.