A 32-year-old woman has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her partner's four-year-old son in Limerick in March 2021.
Tegan McGhee, of no fixed abode, pleaded not guilty to the murder of four-year-old Mason O’Connell Conway, but changed her plea to guilty after medical evidence was heard at her trial last November.
Mason’s father, John Paul O’Connell, has already been jailed for seven years for assisting an offender and endangerment of a child.
Those involved can be named following an application by RTÉ and the publishers of the Irish Independent, Mediahuis, to have an order preventing their identification lifted.
'A loving, caring, clever child' - Mother of boy murdered by father's partner
Mr Justice Paul McDermott said the case involved the continuing abuse and isolation of a four-year-old boy.
The trial heard Mason was taken to hospital in March 2021, after his father said he had fallen from a bunk bed.
However, medics found that he was covered in bruises from head to toe, inflicted at different times.
He also had a broken rib, his liver was torn and he had suffered a catastrophic brain injury.
The trial was told the injuries were like those caused by a car crash or in a fall from a height and none of the bruising looked normal or accidental.
A paediatric consultant gave evidence that an operating theatre full of medics "gasped" when they saw the extent of the injuries on the child's face and body.
His life support was turned off three days after he was brought to hospital.
McGhee had already pleaded guilty to two counts of cruelty against the boy.
He lived briefly with her and his father while his mother was suffering from mental health problems.
The boy’s mother Elizabeth Conway gave victim impact evidence to the court after placing a black and white photograph of her son in front of her.
She described her son as a clever little child who had brought so much love and happiness into all their lives.
She said she had complete trust in his father and his father’s new partner to mind and protect him.
His mother said her son thought he was "a little man" and would help her look after younger siblings.
He always looked out for his loved ones and slept in bed with her at night.
If they saw a homeless person, she said he would ask for him to be given some pizza and would worry about him later.
She described him as loving his grub.
He would go to sleep with a little teddy as he was afraid of the dark, she said. He loved Kinder eggs and would always have a little car or toy in his hand.
She said the phone call from gardaí telling her to get to Cork University Hospital straight away was "the worst phone call any mother could get".
When she got there, she said she saw her beautiful little child hooked up to wires. She said his head was so swollen it was ten times bigger than normal and he was black and blue.
When she asked her son’s father what had happened, he said he had fallen out of the bunk bed and also claimed the child had begun pinching himself, something she had never seen him do.
She told the court her whole world ended when doctors told her there was nothing else they could do for him.
She said doctors put him in her arms and she had to watch her beautiful child’s heartbeat "go down and down".
She said at her son’s funeral, his father and McGhee stood up and told everyone how much they loved him.
She said she had told her son monsters did not exist but she said "actually they do".
It was not until later in the year that she found out her son’s life had been taken.
She said his life was gone "at the hands of pure evil", taken by someone he had loved and trusted.
She said the family’s lives were broken without her son.
Last thing at night, she said she was haunted by the image of her beautiful son, left locked in a room, crying in pain, not understanding what was happening to him.
She said she knew he would have been so frightened.
