A doctor and mother has been found not guilty of the manslaughter of her daughter with special needs.
The case of Bernadette Scully, from Emvale, Bachelor’s Walk, Tullamore, Co Offaly, caught the attention of the Irish public.
She denied the manslaughter of her daughter, Emily Barut (11), by an act of gross negligence on September 15, 2012, involving the administration of a toxic dosage of chloral hydrate, a sedative.
Emily was born with severe disabilities, with microcephaly, severe epilepsy and she was unable to speak, sit or stand unaided.
Experts told the trial that she had the mental capacity of a six-month-old.
She had been in pain for the last eight days of her life, following a medical procedure to replace a feeding peg in her stomach.
The trial heard that the level of chloral hydrate found in her system was 10 times the therapeutic amount.
The jury returned their verdict shortly after 11am this morning.
Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy completed his charge to them this week with an extensive summary of the evidence given by witnesses over the two-week trial.
He told the jury they can “accept some parts of witnesses’ statements and not other parts”.