A woman has gone on trial accused of murdering her son in their apartment in south Dublin in July 2017.
Maha Al-Adheem, who was living at Riverside, Poddle Park in Kimmage at the time, claims she was suffering from a mental disorder.
In his opening address, the prosecuting barrister said this was a particularly sad case but he asked the jurors to leave emotion to one side.
They heard an emergency call was made on July 10th 2017. The female caller simply said “my baby is dead” before hanging up.
When Gardaí forced their way into Maha Al-Adheed’s apartment, they found her sitting on the couch covered in blood with her hands up.
The body of her three-year-old son Omar was lying on her bed.
A post mortem revealed he’d been stabbed in the back and chest repeatedly and a silver kitchen knife was also found in the bedroom.
During her Garda interviews, she spoke about a black tailless cat that she believed had an evil spirit that made bad things happen.
Her neighbours said she’d become pre-occupied with this cat.
She told Gardaí “a power” made her go to the drawer and take out the knife.
She intends to raise the defence of criminal insanity and forensic psychiatrists will evidence on behalf of both sides in due course.
