AN OPEN verdict has been returned in the inquest into the deaths by drowning of a mother who was suffering from post-natal depression and her baby son in a Cork river last year.
Nollaig Owens (33) and her son Tadhg, nine months, died from acute cardio-respiratory failure due to drowning in the Douglas river, Glansheskin Woods, Kilworth, Co Cork, on July 14th, 2007.
The six-man jury made a recommendation that more help be put in place for women suffering from post-natal depression and that the HSE have psychiatric staff on-call at weekends and during holidays.
Mallow Coroner's Court heard yesterday that a young woman out for a walk spotted the baby's buggy in the river and helped to pull the two bodies out.
Gareth Owens, husband of Nollaig and father of Tadhg, said he was from South Africa and had met Nollaig in Bupa in Fermoy, Co Cork, in December 2000, where they both worked.
They were married on August 3rd, 2002, and moved to South Africa in 2003, where their baby boy was born in 2006. They moved to England in 2007 where he was due to take up a job but shortly after he started, he was told the company was closing down and he would be kept on until the end of June.
Mr Owens gave evidence that his wife was suffering from post-natal depression for which she had been prescribed medication, which did not seem to be working. She returned to Cork on June 30th with Tadhg and he travelled back and forth to see them.
He flew to Cork on July 13th and went to see his wife and child at her family home in Kilworth, where she was staying with her mother and two sisters.
The following morning, he suggested to her that he might take the baby back to England with him so that she could get some proper rest. She wanted to keep Tadhg with her and they agreed she would stay in Ireland with the baby and he would visit them. She told him to go back to bed and get some rest while she took the baby for a walk.
Mr Owens said he had a bad feeling about things and he went to the woods to try and find her.
He had been searching for about an hour when her brother told him that Nollaig and Tadhg had drowned in the river.
He said he read in a newspaper two days later that his wife had attempted suicide the previous week, but he knew nothing about this. His wife's GP told him she had attempted suicide the previous week and he had written a note to have her admitted to hospital, but this had not happened.
Coroner for north Cork Dr Michael Kennedy directed the jurors that they could not bring in a verdict of unlawful killing and suicide as there was not enough evidence to prove this beyond reasonable doubt.
