A jury in Kilkenny has returned an open verdict at the inquest into the death of schoolgirl Ciara Gibbs (16) and concluded that she died due to drowning.
Her father Gerard Gibbs wept in the witness box as jurors listened to Supt Aidan Roche read Mr Gibbs's statement.
Mr Gibbs described in his statement how he had found his daughter's body on the floor of an upstairs bathroom in the family home at Killure, Goresbridge, on the morning of Sunday, November 26th, 2006.
Kilkenny county coroner Rory Hogan told Mr Gibbs that he regretted having to call him to attend the inquest but there was no way it could be avoided.
He expressed his sympathy to the family and expressed the hope that "time would heal their pain".
Garda Thomas Ryan, who responded to a call that morning, went to the house where Dr Ronan Fawsitt from the CareDoc service had attended and had pronounced Ciara dead at 10.20am but "was not happy".
Garda Ryan preserved the scene.
State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy arrived at the house later that day and immediately concluded that the death was "most likely caused by drowning".
She described seeing the girl wearing pyjamas, of which the top part was wet and the bottom part was dry.
Dr Cassidy told the jury of five men and one woman that she had carried out a postmortem and found "typical features of death due to drowning".
She said that minor bruising found on Ciara's body "could be expected of a young female involved in sports but could also indicate that she was forcibly held under water in the bath".
Ciara did not appear to have been concussed before the drowning. Toxicology tests carried out using a blood sample from her body were negative for alcohol and drugs. Dr Cassidy concluded that the drowning took place in the bath.
Dr Marese Cheasty, a psychiatrist and "close friend of the Gibbs family", said she had visited the house on the previous evening and had spoken to Ciara who was watching television, before returning to the kitchen to talk to her mother, Lynn Gibbs.
She left the house "between 11.15pm and 11.30 pm" to return to Dublin.
The next morning received a phone call from Mr Gibbs telling her that Ciara was dead.
Ms Gibbs, who was charged with murdering her daughter, was found not guilty by reason of insanity at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin last month.
She has been detained for treatment at the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum, Dublin, until an order for her release is made by the State.
Helen Renehan, principal of the Loreto secondary school in Kilkenny, where Ciara was a pupil, described her as a "beautiful, talented young girl."