Regina Nelligan (33) was remanded on continuing bail yesterday and will be sentenced at Clonmel Circuit Court on February 26th for her part in the abduction of six-year-old Deirdre Crowley.
Deirdre's father, Christopher Crowley, murdered her in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, on August 30th, 2001, before taking his own life. He had been on the run with his daughter since December 1999.
Nelligan, of Carriganagroghera, Fermoy, Co Cork, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to the abduction of Deirdre.
In court yesterday, defence counsel Mr Niall Dornin SC sought an adjournment to allow for an updated medical report to be prepared that would seek to assess his client's state of mind at the time of the offences as well as her current condition. Nelligan is undergoing continuing psychiatric treatment.
Det Sgt John O'Driscoll of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation outlined details of the events leading up to Deirdre's abduction by Nelligan and Christopher Crowley as well as the sequence leading to the child's death.
The court heard that for the 21 months that Deirdre was missing, she had never set foot outside the environs of the remote cottage in Co Tipperary where she was ultimately murdered.
It was also revealed that Nelligan was involved in a relationship with Christopher Crowley when she was a 16-year-old student of his at the Loreto Convent, Fermoy. The affair began during a school trip to Paris and lasted until after Nelligan completed her Leaving Certificate.
The relationship ended badly during a holiday in Italy and Nelligan moved to Dublin to study at NCAD. Her former teacher continued to visit her for her first year in the capital. There was no further contact between the pair until July 1999 when they met at a supermarket car-park in Portlaoise.
Nelligan subsequently organised the rented accommodation near Clonmel where Christopher Crowley held Deirdre. The pair met again on December 4th in the car-park of the Talbot Hotel, Wexford, and Nelligan drove Crowley and his daughter to Clonmel.
The defendant continued to visit the cottage on a regular basis and brought provisions to the property. She also contacted a number of Crowley's friends, using a secret code, to tell them all was well.
The court heard how, during their investigation into Deirdre Crowley's abduction, gardaí called to Nelligan's Dublin address but she denied any knowledge of the child's whereabouts or Crowley's location.
However, press cuttings in relation to the case were found at the apartment. When questioned about these, the defendant said she was simply interested in her former teacher's plight.
Det Sgt O'Driscoll told the court that when questioned about the matter, Nelligan said: "What kind of person do you think I am? If I knew where the child was I would tell you." Judge Michael O'Shea was also told, however, that once details emerged of Deirdre Crowley's killing and Christopher Crowley's death by suicide, Ms Nelligan co-operated with investigating gardaí and made a series of statements about her involvement in the abduction.
Evidence was also given of how Nelligan believed that Deirdre had been removed from her mother, Ms Christine O'Sullivan, for the child's protection.
In direct evidence to the court, Ms O'Sullivan denied that she had been anything but a loving mother to Deirdre. "When she \ was born, she was so beautiful; she was just incredible; such a gift. For nine months, I breast-fed her and I cared for her at all times."
Ms O'Sullivan described Deirdre as a fun-loving, unusually generous and mischievous child who enjoyed playing with her cousins and loved toys and dressing up.
Recollecting the day when she last saw Deirdre alive, Ms O'Sullivan spoke of how she bent down and fastened the child's coat.
"I hugged and kissed her goodbye. I had no way of knowing that I would never see that gorgeous little face again and that 21 months later it would be shattered by a shotgun blast. This could have been prevented by so many people."