Gardai insist ‘no blinkers’ in daughter death probe
A GARDA inspector yesterday told the trial of a GP accused of killing her daughter that detectives had not been “blinkered” about the possible cause of death.
Inspector Ger Glavin said an excessive level of chloral hydrate was there in “black and white” in the postmortem report on 11-yearold Emily Barut.
Her mother Bernadette Scully, 58, denies killing the disabled girl by giving her too much of the sedative on September 15, 2012, at their Co Offaly home.
Insp Glavin told the Central Criminal Court Scully told gardai her daughter had been in severe pain for the last two weeks of her life.
He said the GP told detectives she gave Emily the sedative at 2am, 6am and 11am when she had an “unprecedented” seizure.
Scully, of Emvale, Bachelor’s Walk, Tullamore, accepted she had given her daughter too much.
Defence counsel Kenneth Fogarty pointed to other possible contributors to her death in the postmortem. These included two of her illnesses and inflammation of the lungs.
He asked the inspector: “Were the investigators’ minds closed off to other possibilities?”
The garda said consideration was given to other possible causes but “there were excessive amounts of chloral hydrate administered” and Scully did not raise any other issues during interview. At hearing.