Woman suspect arrested in abandoned baby case

Gardaí last night arrested a 33-year-old woman from the midlands they suspect may have been behind a series of false claims regarding an abandoned baby in the north Dublin area.

The single woman, who they believe has made similar hoax claims before, was taken to Mullingar Garda Station last night for questioning.

She was arrested under Section 12 of the Criminal Law Act (1976), which prohibits the provision of false information which leads to a waste of Garda resources. The offence, on indictment, carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.

A criminal investigation got under way on Wednesday night when the search for an apparently abandoned baby in Ballymun was called off after officers confirmed the calls were not genuine.

The claims from a young woman sparked a major three-day search, estimated to have costs tens of thousands of euro, which involved 40 gardaí who searched or called to around 2,600 flats in the Ballymun area.

A spokesperson for the Garda Press Office declined to comment on the investigation, except to say a number of lines of inquiry were still being followed.

However, Garda sources say they were able to identify a suspect they believed was behind the hoax calls by searching phone records and the PULSE computer database.

Records show the suspect may have been behind a similar hoax in the north of the country, one source involved in the investigation said. The woman is also known to local gardaí in the midlands area.

In all, the woman, who was apparently posing as a young girl of between 13 and 16 years of age, made at least five phonecalls to Ballymun Garda Station and separate helplines between the early hours of Monday morning and Tuesday night.

She seemed distressed and upset on a poor mobile phone line and did not stay on the line for longer than a few minutes.

The woman originally said she had left the baby, wrapped in a coat, behind a sofa in a derelict flat at a specific address in the Poppintree area of Ballymun. However, gardaí later found that no such flat existed.

The search was officially called off at around 9.15 p.m. on Wednesday night when gardaí said they were satisfied that several calls in relation to the incident were not genuine.

An officer in Santry Garda Station said gardaí were upbeat, despite the wasted hours spent in the search.

In a statement, the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, praised gardaí for their professionalism in dealing with the matter.

He said while everyone was relieved there was no abandoned baby, the efforts of the officers involved in the search would raise the esteem of the force.