Bernadette Scully used a statement to the press after the verdict to highlight the absence of services for people with disabilities and to urge those in danger of self-harming to seek help.
Patricia Cronin, her solicitor, read the statement outside the Central Criminal Court, after Ms Scully was cleared of the manslaughter of her profoundly disabled daughter, Emily Barut.
“As I said in my evidence, Emily was my little bird with a broken wing, whom I loved, cared for and protected,” Ms Scully, 58, wrote.
“Our struggle is mirrored in the lives of so many people in similar situations in Ireland. Like me, very many parents and carers of children, who are disabled, struggle on a daily basis to get access to services and support systems, which very often are simply not there.”
She said that she had been in a very dark place four years ago, feeling that she had no reason to live after Emily had passed away. With the help of family and friends together with professional support, she found the strength to go on.
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“To anyone with mental health difficulties, or who has gone to that dark place of considering self-harm, I would plead with you to reach out to even one person and say how you feel and get the help you need,” she said.
She said that she respected the need to investigate her daughter’s death but described the past four years as hell for her and her family.
Not only had she lost her “beloved Emily”, she said, but she had been unable to attend her funeral. She had not had the opportunity to grieve properly or to celebrate Emily’s life, which she described as precious.
“These proceedings have left me traumatised and emotionally, physically and mentally exhausted,” she said.
She thanked her partner, his daughter, her mother and siblings, along with the judge, jury, court officials, gardai and her legal team. She also thanked the paramedics and medical staff who had treated her and Emily.
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She said that she had been humbled by the kindness shown by her family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, the people of Tullamore and Edenderry, as well as by complete strangers, who had sent messages, cards, flowers and letters.
“Your positive energy has helped me and my family enormously in surviving the past four years and, in particular, during the course of the trial,” she said.
She asked that her privacy and that of her family be respected.