A schoolboy who discovered the body of a stabbed baby girl was so traumatised that for years he couldn't revisit the scene, an inquest today heard.
Uinsionn MacDubhghaill, now in his mid 40s, was with a friend when he found the child's body in a plastic bag on April 4th, 1973.
He told Dublin County Coroner's Court he could not go back to the spot at Lee's lane, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, where the baby girl, known as Noleen, had been left.
Cynthia Owen came forward over a decade ago claiming to be the mother of the child, telling gardaí she saw the infant being stabbed to death. The woman, who is now in her 40s, said the baby is one of two she gave birth to due to sexual abuse.
The inquest was reopened by Dublin County Coroner Dr Kieran Geraghty following representations by Ms Owen's solicitors.
"It was very distressing," Mr MacDubhghaill said of the discovery. "For years I never travelled through the lane. For years I never discussed it with anybody. It was in the aftermath of it my mother had to give me sleeping pills."
Mr MacDubhghaill recalled that when he gave evidence at the opening of the inquest in 1973 he was terrified he would be put in prison because he felt he had done something wrong.
At the first hearing State Pathologist Dr Maurice Hickey said the infant, who had been stabbed 40 times with a blunt implement in the head, neck and chest, died from haemorrhaging from blood vessels in the neck due to stab wounds.
The pathologist said the baby, who was around five and a half pounds in weight, had been less than 24 hours old when she was killed and had been dead for less then three days when found.
Ms Owen, who claims gardaí did not fully investigate the case, insists her own late mother should have been charged with murder.
The hearing was told most of the gardaí involved in the case were now dead.
PA