The woman claiming to be the mother of an infant found stabbed to death in south Dublin 34 years ago has alleged the same woman who she said killed the infant attempted to drown her on that night.
Cynthia Owen (45) told Dublin County Coroner's Court yesterday that a woman, referred to as B, pushed her into the water at Sandycove pier before she dumped the infant's body in nearby Lee's Lane car park in Dún Laoghaire.
"B came behind me. She pushed me into the water. I couldn't swim, she was well aware of that."
Ms Owen told the court the woman then threw the bag containing the dead infant into the water after her. Ms Owen said she found concrete underfoot and she was able to retrieve the bag and then climb out of the water.
After emerging from the water, Ms Owen said she went with the woman to a railway bridge in Dún Laoghaire as the woman had taken the bag containing the dead baby from her. Another person, referred to as C, followed them.
"B said to C that she was going to throw me down the railway track and then throw the baby down on top of me," she told the inquest, adding that she planned to do this so it would look like suicide.
Ms Owen alleged that the woman stabbed the infant to death with knitting needles in the family home at Whites Villas, Dalkey, and then told others in the family home that she planned to murder Ms Owen, then aged 11, also. "She kept on insisting she was going to have to kill me. Eventually, she promised she would just kill the baby." Ms Owen told the court that she was called Cindy as a child.
Ms Owen also claimed yesterday that the woman who she said murdered the newborn infant had sexually assaulted her when she was aged between seven and nine.
Coroner Dr Kieran Geraghty told the inquest that Ms Owen "confronted two members of her family" with her allegations in 1995 at Dún Laoghaire Garda station. After making a statement to gardaí, Ms Owen spoke to B in an interview room. "I said, 'you killed my baby. She stuck up her fist and said 'may God forgive you'." Ms Owen said she asked B why she had tied her up using restraints while others "buggered and raped me". The inquest heard that B denied all the allegations made in the Garda station.
Ms Owen was then brought to a separate Garda interview room, where she met a man, referred to as A. She told the court that A said he did not know her. "I said 'you should know me, you're the one who raped me'." He then told Ms Owen that she was "putting ideas in the family's heads".
Legal representative for Ms Owen's father, Peter Murphy snr, and three of her sisters, Catherine Stevenson, Esther Roberts and Margaret Stokes, suggested Ms Owen "invented" the entire story. Ms Owen denied this, saying: "If I invented it, I'd either be in a psychiatric hospital or in prison." The inquest continues today.