A childminder has gone on trial charged with harming a ten-month-old baby in her care.
Sandra Higgins, 36, of the Beeches, Drumgola Wood in Cavan, has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Opening the case, Prosecuting Counsel Kerida Naidoo said the baby was admitted to Cavan General Hospital on the evening of 28 March 2012.
She was having seizures, was pale and floppy, and treated as an emergency.
Medical staff observed that the baby had bruising and underlying swelling on her head and face, as well as other bruises and scratches on her body.
She had bleeding on her brain on both sides and the retinas of both eyes had become separated from the eyeballs.
She was transferred to Temple Street Children’s University Hospital in Dublin for further tests and then back to Cavan.
Mr Naidoo said Ms Higgins was interviewed by gardaí and denied any wrongdoing.
He told the jury that they would hear evidence from an expert in the field of non-accidental injuries to children and would hear the phrase "shaken baby syndrome".
Mr Naidoo said no one saw Ms Higgins inflict any kind of trauma on the baby.
He said the prosecution would turn on the nature of the injuries and their presentation and where the baby was at the time.
He said Ms Higgins, who is married with children of her own, started minding the baby in June 2011, when the baby's mother went back to work, initially for one day a week.
There were no difficulties at first and the child’s mother returned to work full-time in November of that year.
Mr Naidoo told the jurors that in March 2012 the baby's parents became concerned because she was coming back from Ms Higgins' house with bumps and bruises.
On 5 March, Ms Higgins told them the baby had thrown up and when the parents collected her she had a bruise on her face.
The baby continued to have additional bumps and bruises throughout March and her parents decided to move her to a local crèche.
On 26 March, they gave notice to Ms Higgins that she was no longer going to be minding the baby.
They dropped the baby to Ms Higgins on the morning of 28 March, the jury heard.
She was in fine form with no major problems, until the baby's mother got a call at 4.30pm that she was in hospital and was having seizures.
Mr Naidoo warned the jury that no facts had yet been established and no evidence had been heard, but he said he wanted to give them a broad outline of what the case was about.
Mr Naidoo said the baby in this case suffered serious harm. There was a substantial risk that she could have died.
He said such harm did not have to be permanent for the charge of causing serious harm to be brought.
He said the fact that the baby had suffered serious harm was not likely to be in dispute during the trial. He told the jurors a more important issue for them would be when the injuries were suffered.
Mr Naidoo said they would hear expert evidence in relation to "shaken baby syndrome". This did not have to be shaking, he said, it could be the application of trauma. If you apply significant force to the body of a baby, he said, you would know that created a risk that the baby would suffer harm.
Mr Naidoo said the facts of this case were potentially upsetting.
A baby had been badly hurt and it would be natural and understandable to have sympathy with the baby and her parents or to have sympathy for the person on trial. However, he asked them to be dispassionate in the way they analysed the evidence.
Lawyers for Ms Higgins said they fully accepted the baby in this case had suffered serious harm.
