She concealed her pregnancy after becoming pregnant at 18 and refused to admit to carrying a child when questioned by family and friends, tampering with pregnancy tests to maintain a “state of denial” over her situation, the court heard.

Prison term

After giving birth in a toilet cubicle at a doctor’s office in April 2018, she held the newborn girl for a number of minutes before placing her in a bin, stating afterwards that she did not see the girl cry.

Gardaí discovered the body after the alarm was raised by doctors at University Hospital Waterford, where the girl was referred to, on the same night.

The cause of death was given as inattention at birth.

Judge Eugene O’Kelly said the case had a devastating impact on all involved, including the woman, and was a “rare and exceptional” case which justified suspending a large proportion of her sentence – three years – saying he had to ask himself “does society benefit” from her serving the prison term in full.

He said he was not factoring in her hiding the pregnancy when deciding the case, adding, however, that the concealing of the pregnancy would have been a factor if the State had brought a case of infanticide rather than manslaughter.

“The specific case in question is very complex,” said Murphy Tighe. “From the charges the judge had no option but to deal with the conviction that the jury delivered, after those charges were made by the DPP.”

However, questions have since been raised over the custodial sentence and the State’s decision to bring a criminal case.

Some historical cases concerning concealed pregnancies in Irish history include the Ann Lovett case in Longford, where the 15-year-old girl gave birth alone at a grotto in January 1984. She and her baby son both died.

That same year, a woman was wrongly accused of murdering an infant in what became known as the Kerry Babies case. Her family were also accused of concealing the birth of a child. The charges, of which they were innocent, were dropped later that year and gardaí issued an apology to the woman 34 years later, in 2018. 

UL’s Murphy Tighe, who trained and worked as a midwife interviewed 30 women from 2013-16 who concealed their pregnancies, prior to the repeal of the Eighth Amendment in 2018.

Factors arising in cases of concealed pregnancies over the past decade, according to Murphy Tighe, include whether the woman was financially independent, had career pressures, or was having difficulty accessing housing. Easier access to abortion has been a major change in the Irish landscape in recent years, she added. 

“Women in this situation find that asking for help and disclosing the pregnancy is an extremely difficult process because of the fear involved,” she told The Journal.

“A third of those I interviewed had such difficult stories of trauma and abuse from their childhood – domestic violence, child sexual abuse and rape – that they coped by shutting out the emotions from the pregnancy,” Tighe said, stressing that she was speaking solely of her experience of her contact with the women she interviewed as part of the study. 

The women I spoke to were able to shut off that the baby was moving. It’s a maladaptive way of coping.

For each of the 30 women interviewed, they were “paralysed and felt they could not seek help”, Murphy Tighe said.

In several of the cases, the women presented to medical professionals “out of fear” for
their well-being as they began to go through labour, she added. 

‘Subconscious denial’

In the Waterford case, reports conducted on the young woman found she was at little risk of reoffending.

The judge noted one psychiatric report provided to the court for sentencing, which found that the young woman’s response to childhood trauma was “to deal with overwhelming aspects of the world by ignoring them”, resulting in her entering “subconscious denial of her pregnancy”.

She said she was “living with the consequences everyday and will be as long as I live”, in one letter handed up to the judge and read aloud during the hearing.

Although not a factor in the Waterford case, Murphy Tighe believes the Law Reform Commission needs to examine section 60 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, which covers concealment of birth where the child has been killed.

Additionally, while the cases are relatively rare, she stated that healthcare professionals need to be able to spot the signs of a potential case of concealed pregnancy.

UL lecturer Sylvia Murphy Tighe.

Alana Ryan, from the NWCI, said it was important to note the recent case actually occurred shortly before the repeal of the Eighth Amendment.

“Abortion has become much more widely available, but more can be done to increase access,” she said, adding that the laws need to be reviewed.

“The current 12-week timeframe to access an abortion in Ireland puts a time limit which can only increase stress and pressure on someone in this position,” Ryan said.

There are “broader societal supports” that can also ease stress for women in such situations, according to the NWCI.

These range from universal mental health care and childcare to access to housing.

“The absence of these wrap-around supports can compound and exacerbate the stress of a crisis pregnancy,” Ryan added.

We also need to see universal free contraception to mitigate the risk of crisis pregnancies and accessible abortion care to ensure that there is a choice for those who are in that situation.