Garda recalls performing CPR on two-year-old who later died in hospital, murder trial hears

LAST UPDATE | 4 May 2022

A GARDA SERGEANT has told a murder trial about undertaking CPR on a two-year-old girl who he first believed was dead because of the grey colour of her skin before detecting a “faint heartbeat” when he placed his hands on her chest.

Karen Harrington is on trial at a Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork charged with the murder of Santina Cawley at 26 Elderwood Park in Boreenmanna Road in Cork on 5 July 2019.

At the time, Harrington (37), of Lakelands Crescent in Mahon in Cork, was in a relationship with Michael Cawley, Santina’s father.

Santina passed away at Cork University Hospital at 9.20am on 5 July 2019, despite efforts by medics to revive her.

Sergeant Brian Teahan, who is a licenced emergency medical technician, said that he was called to the scene at the apartment complex at 5.25am.

He was informed by another garda that he was attending a crime scene and that a child appeared to be dead.

He arrived at the door of 26 Elderwood Park and met Cawley, Santina’s father, who was very distressed.

“He kept saying ‘She [Harrington] has killed my daughter.’ He asked ‘Is she dead?’ I said ‘I don’t know.’

“I left a colleague at the door. I [went in to the apartment] and observed a child who appeared to be deceased. She was face up on a duvet in the centre of the room.

“There was blood on the duvet. Her head was titled backward and her eyes were open. There was a bruise on her forehead. I was concerned with the colour of her skin. Her skin was lacking in profusion. Grey. Colourless. Her skin was warm to the touch but she was completely unresponsive.”

Teahan said there was no pulse on the Santina’s neck but he when he put his hands on her chest he detected “a very faint heartbeat. “

In order to carry out CPR, Teahan had to remove her from the duvet she was on. He put her on a hard surface.

“She was limp with no structure to her body. I picked her up. There was blood between her teeth. I started CPR compressions at a continuous rate. I delivered oxygenated air to the child from an O2 cylinder,” he told the court.

He said that the HSE advanced paramedics then took over Santina’s care.

He told the jury that when he entered the apartment, he noticed that there was blood on the floor.

“There was a large amount of blood in the kitchen and the kitchen was in disarray.”

Teahan said when he came outside the apartment, Cawley asked if his daughter was dead.

“I answered that I didn’t believe she was dead but she was very seriously injured.”

A former member of the National Ambulance Service Vivienne Forde told the court that when she saw Santina in the apartment, she had scratch marks and welt marks to her chest and bruising to the upper body and forehead.

Other paramedics gave evidence that there was a soiled nappy at the scene and that the duvet which Santina was found under was dirty and had urine stains.

Evidence was read in to the record from Professor Deirdre Murray, Consultant Paediatrician at Cork University Hospital, who said that Santina died at 9.20am on 5 July 2019.

Professor Murray noted that Santina had sustained devastating injuries and died in the arms of her mother.

The trial also heard evidence from Yvonne Walsh, a friend of Harrington, who told the jury that she was having a cigarette on the wall outside her home at Cherry Lawn in Blackrock in Cork at around 5.30am to 6am on 5 July, 2019 when she saw Harrington approaching her property.

“I thought I was seeing a ghost. I know Karen. I knew she was distressed. She had no shoes and her feet were bleeding. I said ‘what is wrong?’ I went to hug her.

“She said ‘I don’t know what is after happening in my apartment.’ She said he [Michael Cawley] said that I tried to suffocate his child. She was distraught.”

Walsh said that Harringon had believed that Santina was lying on a blanket in the apartment.

Walsh stated that Harrington told her that Cawley had placed Santina in to her arms and said ‘Karen, you smothered my child’.

“She [Karen] said she couldn’t hold her. She saw her [Santina’s] head was lifeless and a bit floppy. I said ‘Karen, get in to my car . We will go see what is wrong.’”

Walsh said that it was a case of fight or flight for Harrington who had woke up to this situation in her apartment and that she had no idea what had happened to Santina.

Walsh said that when she went back to the Elderwood apartments complex she noted the presence of gardaí and an ambulance.

Walsh, who has known Harrington all her life, told the court that the accused was “afraid and shaking”.

Walsh stated that Cawley spoke to them in a “very forceful” manner and asked Harrington if she had suffocated his child.

“I said ‘she did nothing.’ She didn’t answer.”

Walsh said that she had been friends with Harrington’s mother and had known the defendant “since she was in the womb.”

She described Harrington as someone she trusted completely.

“Karen was my babysitter for years. I wouldn’t trust anyone with my daughter. It was either my mother or Karen (minding her).”

Meanwhile, Michelle Harrington, a sister of the accused, told the court that Karen Harrington had accompanied Michael Cawley to Santina’s hospital appointments.

The witness and the accused exchanged a few missed calls with each other in the early morning of 5 July 2019.

Michelle Harrington said that her sister, who is the eldest in her family, had assumed the role of parent to her three younger siblings when she was a teenager amid family difficulties.

She said that the accused was a major support network to her sisters and a person who loved kids.

“She is very good (with kids). She was always friendly to children. She reared all of us. It is not in her nature to be mean to a child.”

The case continues before Justice Michael McGrath and a jury of seven men and four women later this afternoon. The twelfth juror has been excused from the trial.