Santina Cawley murder trial: ‘She was like a child’s doll,’ says garda called to scene

A garda has told how he found the body of a two-year-old girl lying lifeless on a duvet in the apartment of the woman charged with her murder after a neighbour raised the alarm.

Garda David Tobin told the trial of Karen Harrington how he met her neighbour, Dylan Olney at the Elderwood complex on Boreenamanna Road in Cork shortly at 5.23am. Mr Olney had rung the gardaí to say that there may be a dead baby in an apartment in the complex, he said.

Garda Tobin told how he went into Ms Harrington’s duplex apartment on the third and fourth floor after Michael Cawley had asked Mr Olney to contact the gardaí when he discovered his daughter, Santina (2) lifeless on the upper floor of the two-storey apartment.

“When I went into the living room I saw Santina Cawley - she was lying on a quilt, she looked pale and she wasn’t breathing and from looking at her, she looked deceased to me at this stage - it looked like she had been placed on the quilt.

Child’s doll

“She was like a child’s doll, her eyes were only slightly open, her hands were lying by her side and her head was back and she was naked and she had a bruise to her forehead and there was a little bit of blood in her mouth and she was not breathing.”

Garda Tobin was giving evidence on the sixth day of the trial of Mr Cawley’s former partner, Karen Harrington of Lakelands Crescent, Mahon, Cork who has denied the murder of Santina Cawley at Elderwood Park, Boreenamanna Road, on July 5th, 2019.

Garda Tobin told how he met Santina’s father, at the scene and he was totally distraught, crying ‘She killed my baby” . When he asked who ‘she’ was, Mr Cawley did not seem to hear and just kept crying ‘she killed my baby’, the garda said. “He was in total despair,” he said.

Sgt Bryan Teahan told the jury of seven men and four women at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork that he was a trained medical emergency technician and that when he arrived at the scene at 5.29am and first saw Santina, he thought she was deceased

He said that he had asked Garda Tobin what they were dealing with and Garda Tobin told him there was a dead child and confirmed that it as a crime scene before. Sgt Teahan said he went into the apartment, having just met Mr Cawley outside who kept saying “She killed my daughter”

“When I went into the room, I observed a child who appeared to be deceased - she was lying on a duvet that was folded up roughly - the child was completely naked, lying face up on the duvet with her head tilted back and her eyes were open.”

He said that Santina’s arms were lying by her side but her feet were together which had the effect of splaying her legs apart in a most unnatural position and her pallor was grey and colourless, suggesting that there was no oxygenated blood circulating to her body.

Sgt Teahan said he tried to take a pulse at Santina’s wrist but could find none before then trying to take a pulse from her carotid artery at her neck only again to fail to find one and although her body was still warm, he listened to her chest and found no sign of breathing.

Faint heartbeat

He said that he began performing CPR on Santina and moved her on to a solid surface to do so and as he began to compress her chest, he felt a faint heartbeat but her heart was beating so rapidly, he was unable to take a heart rate.

“That was the first time I made an assessment that the child might be alive,” said Sgt Teahan adding that he noticed bruising to her forehead and emergent bruising all over her body while he also noticed there was blood between her teeth when he opened her mouth.

Sgt Teahan told how he was assisted by some paramedics from Cork City Fire Brigade, who had arrived at the scene, and they gave Santina oxygen but they could not resuscitate her and she was also treated by HSE advance paramedics at the scene.

Santina was taken by ambulance to Cork University Hospital where she received further treatment before she was pronounced dead at 9.20am on July 5th, the court heard earlier. The case continues.