Mother Of Murdered Baby Demands Inquiry
Cynthia Owen has demanded a public inquiry into the Garda handling of her case, after a coroner ruled that she was the mother of a baby murdered in Dublin 34 years ago.
She has called on the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, to appoint an independent figure to oversee the public inquiry. A jury at the baby’s inquest in the Dublin County Coroner’s Court unanimously found on Friday that, at the age of 11,Owenwas the mother of an infant found stabbed to death in a laneway in Dun Laoghaire, south Dublin, in April 1973.
‘‘Vital evidence and numerous statements disappeared, and this cannot be allowed to go unexplained,” said Owen.
‘‘I have had to wait 34 years for the state to recognise that I was the mother of this child, which I first reported to gardaý in 1995. I expect to hear from the minister in the near future about this.”
She said she was reviewing her options in taking a civil action and would ask the Director of Public Prosecutions to reconsider criminal prosecutions.
The inquest heard claims from Owen that she and her siblings were the victims of repeated sexual abuse and that one such incident resulted in Owen’s pregnancy. Owen’s father, Peter Murphy Snr and brother, Peter Murphy Jnr, denied they were the perpetrators of the abuse.
The 44-year-old said she had finally been vindicated but wanted to see justice served for what had happened.
Speaking to The Sunday Business Post, Owen said she would meet her legal team this week to consider her options.
‘‘I will be considering a possible civil action in relation to the Garda investigation of the case,” she said, ‘‘and against those who subjected me to years of sexual abuse.
‘‘My three sisters have testified to most of what I have told gardaý, and now that I have all the statements before me, I think it beggars belief that no one was prosecuted in this case before.”
The inquest heard that, according to gardaý, the bag in which the baby was found, along with a sanitary towel, cloth and newspapers, have all been lost.
