Heartbroken mother of Santina Cawley: 'What animal could do that to a two-year-old baby?'
The mother of the two-year-old girl who was killed in Cork earlier this month has asked for those responsible to come forward.
Heartbroken Bridget O'Donoghue described the moment she was told by doctors at Cork University Hospital that little Santina Cawley had passed away.
"They brought me into a private room and said 'the child is dead' - from there I broke down," Bridget said speaking to .
"I went to grab her and her eyes opened and her mouth was full of blood, she was battered to death.
"I said 'what happened my baby?' and they couldn't give me an explanation," she said.
She described how when the doctors gave her Santina to hold, the blanket she was wrapped in fell off, revealing heavy bruising on Santina's leg.
Bridget also described other visible injuries on the two-year-old including a cut on her face and broken teeth.
"What animal could do that to a two-year-old baby?" she asked
Bridget said that she now wants justice so that Santina can rest in peace.
I want justice, I want the person, whoever did this to my baby to come forward. Please come forward.
"I want justice because I will never rest until I get justice, how could you rest? How could the baby rest?”
Gardaí investigating the child's murder yesterday renewed their appeal to the public for information.
They have appealed to people who were in the Elderwood Estate area or Boreenamanna Road areas in the early hours of Friday, July 5, to contact them.
They have urged those with dash cam or mobile phone footage from the area at the time to make it available to them.
