PPS issues public apology at Craigavon court over incorrect claims baby's mother faced charges
The Public Prosecution Service has issued a public apology for two judges being told wrongly that a woman had been arrested and charged over her baby sustaining serious injuries.
At Friday’s Craigavon Magistrates Court a PPS lawyer outlined that when the baby’s father was initially charged, “the court was told the mother had been charged in connection with this case, and this was reported in the media”.
"We, on behalf of the PPS, wish to correct that,” the lawyer told District Judge Michael Ranaghan. “The mother of the child has not been charged, and we apologise for this error.”
When the child’s father was initially in court in January, in the magistrates’ court and then before Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan, the police and PPS claimed the mother had been arrested and charged.
There were also claims she allegedly “refused a number of other scans that would have assisted in the care of the baby”.
Friday’s statement makes it plain that while the media’s reporting of the case was accurate, the accounts given at the two courts were not.
In a statement issued after Friday’s hearing, Owen Beattie, the mother’s solicitor said they “welcomed” the PPS correction and apology, adding: "Our client will now be considering her legal options against the police and prosecution service for this inaccurate commentary.”
The child’s father, who cannot be identified in order to protect the infant’s identity, is on bail facing one charge of child cruelty and a further charge of causing or allowing “serious physical harm” to be caused to the child in January 2026.
The charges arise after a baby sustained multiple brain bleeds and a fractured skull.
The court heard at around 4am an ambulance crew contacted police about a concern for safety “of a baby in cardiac arrest”.
"Police attended and on arrival, ambulance staff were performing CPR,” prosecuting counsel said, adding at the time that the child was not expected to survive.
Having been successfully revived, the child was taken to hospital and on the way, the defendant told police he fed the baby at 12am and when he woke at 2am, he noticed the child wasn’t breathing properly.
"He lifted the baby and their head was floppy so he took the baby to the mother and she said to phone for an ambulance,” the prosecutor said.
According to the child’s mother, the baby had gone floppy earlier that week, but she held them “and they came back quickly so they didn’t think more of it.”
In the intervening period, a GP had also seen the child for colic and “confirmed there was nothing wrong”.
Regarding examinations conducted by paediatric doctors in ICU, the court heard scans uncovered multiple bleeds on the brain, in addition to a skull fracture.
Later that morning, after the man asked to speak to a detective, he told the officer: “I shook him; he has been a nightmare lately, I shook him.”
Having been arrested, the defendant told police, “I have f***** up this time.”
Despite the admission to shaking the baby, doctors opined that action would not account for the skull fracture and as doctors had found an older, healing brain bleed, there was a suspicion of repeated bouts of child abuse.
The case was adjourned to the last week of July.