Teen suspect freed without charge over baby assault

File will be prepared for the DPP

AN 18-YEAR-OLD man has been released from Garda custody without charge over the serious assault of a baby girl who is fighting for her life in hospital.

Gardaí are now preparing a file for the DPP. The young man had been arrested in Dublin over the assault of a ten-week-old baby girl, who sustained serious head injuries and a number of broken bones on Monday in Co. Louth.

The suspect was released from custody at Drogheda Garda Station yesterday evening around 6pm.

The man, who is originally from Cork, but living in Ardee, Co. Louth, was arrested in Dublin on Wednesday evening on suspicion of assault causing serious harm.

It is understood that he has previously come to Garda attention, and that he is known to the infant.

A Garda statement read: ‘The man arrested in connection with a serious assault in Co. Louth has been released without charge. A file will now be prepared for the information of the Director of Public Prosecutions.’ It added: ‘He was arrested in the Dublin area at approximately 6pm [on Wednesday]... under the provisions of Section 4 – Criminal Justice Act 1984.’

It emerged on Wednesday that gardaí were treating as ‘suspicious’ the serious injuries sustained by the ten-week-old baby girl.

The infant remained in a critical condition at Temple Street Hospital in Dublin last night after sustaining serious head injuries and a number of broken bones in the assault.

The baby had been rushed to Drogheda hospital on Monday evening by her young parents. Such was the extent of her injuries that the infant was transferred to Temple Street on Tuesday.

Sources confirmed that the manner in which the infant sustained her injuries was being treated as ‘suspicious’ and that ‘accidental injuries’ had been ‘essentially ruled out’.

The baby’s father gave a statement to gardaí. He claimed he had been walking with his daughter in the Riverbank area of Ardee on Monday evening.

He said that while they were out walking, a number of individuals ‘knocked him and the buggy over’.

The man said the baby fell from her buggy and sustained her traumatic injuries.

He said he then returned to the nearby apartment he shares with his girlfriend, and the baby girl was rushed to Drogheda hospital.