Hi °C | Lo °C A man accused of murdering a toddler told police the child was not breathing when he found her and that he tried to resuscitate her.
Millie Martin died last December from a massive head wound but also suffered broken ribs and bruising to her vaginal area, chest and abdomen.
Her mother’s partner, 30-year-old Barry McCarney, from Glebe Park, Enniskillen, is charged with murdering the 14-month-old girl.
He applied for bail yesterday with his solicitor Conor Heaney telling Fermanagh Magistrates Court there was “no evidence at all” against him.
Opposing the application, the prosecuting counsel submitted that the police investigation would be put in “serious jeopardy” if McCarney was released.
District Judge Austin Kennedy said that on the night of Millie’s death her mother had gone to get McCarney a bar of chocolate from a shop 200 yards away.
When she returned a short time later her daughter and partner were not there.
“Only the defendant knows what happened in that short period of time,” the District Judge said.
He noted that McCarney has a history of violence with convictions for assault, and refused the bail application.
Explaining the background to the case a detective constable said McCarney and Millie’s mother Rachel got together last September and he moved into her home at Glebe Park in Enniskillen shortly afterwards.
On the night Millie died, McCarney asked the child’s mother to go to the local shop and get him a bar of chocolate.
She returned to find the back door open and that McCarney and Millie were not there.
The court heard that Millie was admitted to Erne Hospital around 8.30pm on Thursday, December 10, last year. She wasn’t breathing and was described as being in a “lifeless state”.
A post-mortem examination |revealed she died from a massive injury to the back of her head.
The pathologist also found she had a number of broken ribs which had been fractured at different times and had received a hard blow to the stomach several days prior to her death.
McCarney was not the little girl’s father but he has three children by two previous partners, the court heard.
Mr Heaney put it to the detective constable that when McCarney was charged with murder he replied: “I am saddened and sickened by Millie’s death.”
McCarney also told police he was “totally innocent” and had nothing to do with the death.
The officer also agreed that McCarney went into considerable detail about how he gave Millie mouth-to-mouth and cardiac massage and then ran with her to a neighbour’s and was driven immediately to the hospital.
Bail was refused. Mr Heaney said he had been instructed to apply to for High Court bail.
