Offaly GP accused of killing daughter: 'Everything went quiet and her little lips went blue'

Latest: An Offaly GP on trial for the alleged manslaughter of her severely disabled daughter has told her trial about the morning she passed away.

Offaly GP accused of killing daughter: 'Everything went quiet and her little lips went blue'

Update 3.10pm: An Offaly GP on trial for the alleged manslaughter of her severely disabled daughter has told her trial about the morning she passed away.

Bernadette Scully is accused of killing Emily by administering an excessive dose of a sedative at their home at Emvale, Bachelor’s Walk in Tullamore in 2012.

After giving Emily a third dose of Chloral hydrate to try to ease a fit, she said "everything went quiet and her little lips went blue".

She took her up in her arms and just held her. She told the jury she knew she wasn’t breathing and begged her not to go.

She then reached for a tissue in the witness box as she remembered how her tears were falling down on Emily’s "little face" after she was gone.

For the 11 years she was alive, she said they were always together. “She was beautiful and she was a part of me,” she said.

Emily was born with severe disabilities and needed 24 hour care.

When she administered that final dose, Ms. Scully said she’d never seen her daughter in such distress. She’d fit every day, but this was different, she said

Afterwards, she said she made two attempts to take her own life. She said she just needed to get to wherever Emily had gone.

Her trial continues.

Earlier:

An Offaly GP on trial for allegedly killing her severely disabled daughter has begun giving evidence as part of her defence.

Bernadette Scully has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of Emily Barut at their home at Emvale, Bachelor’s Walk in Tullamore in 2012.

The prosecution closed its case against Bernadette Scully yesterday and she was called as the defence’s first witness this afternoon.

She said she had always wanted a child and found it hard to look at chubby babies sitting in trolleys being pushed by their mothers in supermarkets.

She had Emily on Dec 21, 2000, following several IVF treatments, and Emily did not cry when she was born. Dr Scully said the labour ward was so quiet.

She said she knew in her gut that something was wrong when she brought her home a few weeks later. Her head was small and she could not feed her.

Following a series of scans and tests, she described how a consultant paediatrician broke the bad news. He told her she was going to be severely disabled and may never walk or talk.

She is accused of giving Emily a lethal dose of Chloral hydrate on September 15, 2012.

When asked about the sedative today, she said she was advised to use it. She said she never prescribed it to her own patients and reserved it as a last resort.

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