A 39-year-old mother accused of attempting to murder her 18-month-old twin sons at her home in Dublin has failed in a bid to have the charges against her dismissed.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is charged with attempting to murder her two young sons on October 9th, 2019 at her home.
She is also accused of intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to one of the two children on the same date.
The accused woman is further charged with producing an article capable of inflicting serious injury in the course of a dispute, to wit a large kitchen knife, in a manner likely unlawfully to intimidate another person on the same occasion.
In addition, the defendant is charged with falsely imprisoning a woman on the same date.
Last week, the woman applied to the Central Criminal Court to dismiss two of the charges against her.
Submissions
On July 19th, defence counsel Anne Rowland SC, for the accused, told the court that her client was only making the application under Section 4E of the Criminal Justice Act 1999 in relation to the two attempted murder charges. A Section 4E application is for the dismissal of a charge against an accused.
The court heard submissions from Ms Rowland and Sean Guerin SC made submissions on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
On Thursday, Mr Justice Michael MacGrath said he would distribute his written decision at a later stage and would only pronounce the court's conclusion.
The judge said that, having taken everything into account, he must refuse the application.
The woman's trial is expected to take place at the Central Criminal Court in October.
Section 252 of the Children Act, 2001 prohibits the identification of child victims and makes it an offence to publish anything that could identify a child who is an alleged victim of an offence.
