Mother of dead boy moved to local psychiatric hospital

The mother of the boy whose body was found on Greystones beach in Co Wicklow on Saturday night has been transferred to Newcastle Psychiatric Hospital.

Ms Ruth Murphy, estranged from her husband, John, for the last 18 months, took their son Karl, aged eight, during a supervised visit at the home of a friend on Friday evening.

Gardai were notified immediately, and road-blocks were set up across the county, but Ms Murphy, driving a Honda Civic car, was able to reach the north beach in Greystones where she was discovered at 10.40 p.m. close to her son's body.

They were found by Mr Tom Sullivan, a local detective garda who was on the beach with a group of Boy Scouts at the time. Karl was found lying face down in shallow water on the seashore.

Efforts to revive him at the scene were not successful, and he was taken to St Colmcille's Hospital, Loughlinstown, where he was pronounced dead.

Gardai would not release details of a post-mortem yesterday, but sources indicated that drowning was the most likely cause of death.

Ms Murphy, who was not coherent when found, was taken initially to Loughlinstown Hospital where she spent the night before being transferred yesterday to the secure unit at Newcastle Hospital, about 10 miles from where Karl lived near Rathnew with his father.

It is understood that Ms Murphy was given limited access to her son by court order and she had travelled to Glenealy, a few miles from Rathnew, by appointment to meet Karl for a supervised visit.

She was understood to have recently moved from Blainroe outside Wicklow town to Greystones and changed her mobile phone, hampering efforts by her husband to contact her in the hours immediately after the abduction.

Mr John Murphy runs a successful printing business near his home in Rathnew. The village was quiet yesterday as friends and neighbours came to terms with the tragedy. One neighbour in some distress remarked: "Everybody here is wrecked. Karl was a beautiful little boy."

Although a Garda presence was maintained at Newcastle Hospital last evening, sources indicated that charges were not imminent and any action would await advice from Ms Murphy's doctors.

Garda sources said they were unable to be specific about Karl's age, but neighbours said his eighth birthday party took place recently, at which he was presented with a puppy.

The area where Ms Murphy and her son's body were found is the scene of almost continual landslides, with a number of clay cliffs about 30 metres high. However, gardai discounted the theory that Karl or his mother had fallen from the cliffs.