GP DENIED PLANNING DEATH DOSAGE
A DOCTOR accused of killing her profoundly disabled daughter told gardai she did not make a conscious decision to take her “out of this world”, a court heard yesterday.
Bernadette Scully said she gave the 11-year-old double the amount of sedative she normally would in a 24-hour period but claimed her death was not premeditated.
The GP’S interviews with gardai were read out at the Central Criminal Court. She is accused of the manslaughter of Emily Barut at their home at Emvale, Bachelor’s Walk, Tullamore, Co Offaly.
It is alleged it was an act of gross negligence involving the administration of an excessive quantity of chloral hydrate on September 15, 2012. Scully has pleaded not guilty.
Insp Ger Glavin told the court he arrested her and brought her to Tullamore Garda station on April 7, 2014, where she was interviewed.
The trial has heard Emily had severe epilepsy as well as microcephaly and cerebral palsy. She had the mental age of a six-month-old and couldn’t move or speak.
Scully, 58, said she had given her daughter chloral hydrate when she became upset at 2am and 6am and had given it again when she had an “unprecedented” seizure at around 11am. She said: “My whole aim had been to keep her alive.” It was suggested she was as low as she had ever been, that Emily was living in extreme pain and she had made a conscious decision to take them both out of this world.
The court already heard Scully made two suicide attempts that day. She said: “I did not make any conscious decision to take Emily out of this world. I did make a conscious decision after Emily died to take myself out of this world.”
The trial continues.