A WOMAN ACCUSED of the murder of a two-year-old girl has claimed in direct evidence at her trial that she did not kill the toddler and was “unsure” as to who was responsible for the crime in spite of considering the issue for the last three years. 

Karen Harrington (37) is on trial at the Central Criminal Court in Cork city charged with the murder of Santina Cawley. The toddler was found critically injured on the morning of 5 July 2019 at the then home of Harrington at Elderwood Park in Boreenmanna Road in Cork.

Harrington, of Lakelands Crescent in Mahon in Cork  was in a relationship with Michael Cawley, the father of the child, at the time of the alleged offence. Santina died in the arms of her mother at Cork University Hospital at 9.20am on 5 July at Cork University Hospital.

Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster previously told the court that the fracture to the skull sustained by Santina would have stopped her ability to cry. She would have instantly lapsed into a coma. Santina sustained 53 injuries. including fractures to her skull, arm, leg femur and ribs and bruising to almost every part of her body. 

Under cross examination by Sean Gillane, SC for the Prosecution, Harrington said in sworn evidence that she was not responsible for the murder of the youngster.

Gillane asked Harrington to “solve the mystery” of what had occurred to Santina. Harrington said she had thought about what had occurred to Santina for three years and had no answer.

Gillane said: “Santina did not cause the injuries to herself. Do you accept that only person with her was you?”

Harrington replied: “No.”

“Would you like to name anyone else with her?” Gilane asked. He then said if she hadn’t inflicted the injuries on the youngster, who had? The accused said that she couldn’t comment.

“I cannot answer that. I am unsure to say. I have thought about this for over three years.”

Harrington accepted the proposition put forward by Gillane that Santina did not cause the injuries to herself, but when the Prosecution Counsel said that she was the only person with her (Santina), she said: “No”. 

She said she had been woken from her sleep in her apartment at 3am on 5 July 2019 and that a row had ‘escalated’ with her then partner Michael Cawley.

Harrington accepted that he left alone shortly after, leaving Santina in the apartment.  She also agreed that she and Santina were alone for a period of time in the apartment.

Gillane put it to Harrington that when Michael Cawley left, Santina was “alive and uninjured.” Harrington said that she couldn’t confirm that.

“Why not? Gillane asked. “If there were injuries, how could you not have noticed?”

Harrington answered: “I ask myself the same. All I can recall back when I vision Santina, I don’t see any bruises or injuries or blood or anything like that.

“All the injuries she had, I don’t know anything about it.”

Gillane said that in the defendant’s statements to gardaí, she indicated that when Michael left the apartment at 3am, she comforted the child and took care of her. The last she remembered was that Santina was asleep on a duvet in the living room of the property.

Gillane said that if Santina had been injured at that point, Harrington would have seen the injuries.

Harrington didn’t respond when Gillane asked if if she had seen missing tufts of hair from the head of the child or a bleeding lip at that point.

He put it to her that she, alongside the jury, had been shown CCTV evidence from when Michael Cawley left the apartment during the early hours of 5 July 2019 and that nobody other than Harrington entered or left until Michael returned to find the child injured.

“Are you going to be big enough to say Michael didn’t do it? Santina didn’t do it?”

Harrington said that she accepted that Santina didn’t do it.

When asked if she accepted that Michael Cawley, who was captured on CCTV in Cork city centre for several hours that morning, hadn’t inflicted the injuries, she said: “I don’t know exactly what happened from 3am to 5am. I was suddenly woken from my sleep.”

Gillane again asked Harrington if she would accept that the father of the child was not responsible for her death. Harrington said it was not a question for her to answer.

“I am not in a position to answer that. I do not know.” She said she would accept that she didn’t kill Santina.

When Gillane said that her answer involved the use of an ‘escape hatch’, she stressed that she was “not escaping.”

Gillane said that if Santina didn’t do it, and neither Michael Cawley or a mysterious stranger was responsible for the death who was. She said she couldn’t say.

“I can’t give a detailed account.”

Harrington conceded that she hadn’t seen anyone else harm the child. She didn’t answer when Gillane asked her if she heard Santina crying when her ribs were being broken or she was being otherwise injured.

She denied taunting the child as reported to gardaí by neighbour Dylan Olney. In fact, she said that she was “crying through the night” herself.

Gillane said that Harrington was responsible for the death of the toddler. “You inflicted those horrific injuries,” he said.

Harrington defiantly said that she was not responsible for the crime. “I did not inflict injuries on Santina Cawley.”

Gillane ended his cross examination of Harrington by saying that when gardaí arrived at the her then apartment to investigate a noise complaint, neighbour Dylan Olney noted that there was a ‘dead silence.”

He put it to Harrington that Olney could never have known at this juncture that the phrase was literal and not metaphorical.

Meanwhile, Gillane also read statements to the jury which were were taken by gardaí from two teenagers who live in the Elderwood Complex where Santina was found critically injured.

The teenagers cannot be named for legal reasons. One said that she heard a woman arguing with a man in the early hours of 5 July 2019. She said the man had called the woman a “bitch” and a “prostitute.” Another teenager said she saw a female shouting at a woman running down the road.

Meanwhile, DVD footage of Harrington’s fifth interview with gardaí was previously shown to jurors.

In the garda interview, Harrington acknowledged that photographs taken in her apartment that night “looked very bad.”

However, she continued to insist that she did not murder Santina Cawley even when gardaí put it to her that the blood of the child was found on a pair of her pants.

“It looks terrible. It looks very bad. (Blood on the pants) that looks bad. I don’t know. It looks all crazy,” she said.

“I did not cause any injury to Santina or would I cause any injury to any baby or genuinely to anyone. I 100% wouldn’t harm anyone.”

Harrington said that she was “blank” about the evening when Dt Sgt David Noonan asking her if she had no recollection, how could she be so sure she hadn’t killed the child. Harrington again insisted that she would never hurt a child.

“I would never (hurt a child). I am minding children all my life. Honest to God I told you from start to finish what I recall. I told you everything. I feel sick to my stomach. “

Noonan put to Harrington that she was the only person in the apartment the night Santina was murdered.

“You had blood on your clothing. Blood belonging to Santina Cawley on your pants. “

Harrington said: “Yes I was there.”

She said that her “place was upside down” but said that other than accidentally breaking a glass, she didn’t know what had happened to cause such disarray.

She stressed that she hadn’t seen Santina bleeding on the night and that she couldn’t explain the blood of the child being found on a pair of pyjamas pants in the property.

“I can’t explain it. They (the pants) are mine,” she said.

When asked when she changed in to a new pair of pants, Harrington indicated that she “honest to God don’t remember.”

At one point during the questioning, Noonan asked Harrington why she was smiling. She said that she wasn’t smiling but was instead thinking. Noonan said that Santina Cawley was dead and would never smile again.

“It is very unfair on the family not to know what happened. I am not here to judge you. I am here to listen. To get to the truth.”

Harrington stressed that she “would love” to be able to give an explanation as to how the child ended up critically injured, but she didn’t have one.

Noonan also took to the stand, where he said that the first four garda interviews with Harrington involved getting an “uncontaminated account.” The fifth interview served as an opportunity to challenge the account of the accused.

Brendan Grehan, SC for the defence said that in spite of the challenge, Harrington never changed her basic account of what occurred.

“You did all that but she didn’t budge. She had the right to say ‘no comment.’ Karen Harrington cooperated fully in the interview.”

The trial continues this afternoon in front of Justice Michael McGrath and a jury of seven men and four women. The twelfth juror in the case was excused last week.