A woman has gone on trial accused of murdering her daughter in Dublin.
The woman, who can’t be named to protect the child’s identity, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
In his opening address, prosecuting barrister Paul Murray told the jurors that two childcare workers raised concerns with the mother about her child’s behaviour in pre-school and Montessori.
Both felt she was showing some signs for autism, and so she decided to have her daughter properly assessed.
While the assessment was ongoing, the jurors were told that she began doing her own research and became convinced that her toddler daughter had a condition called Pathological Demand Avoidance.
She text one friend on February 1st 2018 to say she had been diagnosed with it and that it looked “horrible” from what she’d read online.
The actual final report of the assessment hadn’t yet come out nine days later when emergency services received a call from the accused to say she had suffocated her with a pillow.
The jurors are due to hear from two clinical psychologists, who will claim she was suffering from a mental disorder at the time, but it will ultimately be left to the jury to decide whether the special verdict applies in this case.
