Karen Harrington appeals against her conviction for murder of Cork toddler Santina Cawley

Convicted child murderer Karen Harrington appealed today against her conviction for the murder of Santina Cawley – one of her main grounds of appeal being under data protection, claiming that her privacy was breached by CCTV evidence from a neighbouring house.

This claim was made by Jane Hyland, senior counsel for Karen Harrington, at the Court of Criminal Appeal presided over by Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy and her colleagues, Ms Justice Úna Ní Raifeartaigh and Ms Justice Tara Burns. 

Their decision after the brief hearing today was reserved. It is possible that it will be delivered later in the week but no date has been set.

Ms Hyland made reference to arguments put forward by lawyers for Graham Dwyer in his legal challenge to mobile phone meta data being used in evidence in his case where he was convicted of murdering Elaine O’Hara. During the defence submissions in the Karen Harrington case, Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh said that even if evidence was found to be a breach of the data protection directive it did not necessarily make it inadmissible.

Prosecution senior counsel Seán Gillane said today that in the trial of Karen Harrington the defence did not challenge the presentation of CCTV. In fact, Mr Gillane said that as well as allowing an edited version of gathered CCTV to be presented to the jury, they asked for the section of CCTV gathered from the neighbouring house – now at the centre of the defence appeal – to be played in full to the jury at the murder trial. Mr Gillane said this was done, at the request of the defence.

Ms Justice Kennedy remarked: 

“It cannot be an issue of it (the particular piece of CCTV) being overlooked (in terms of a challenge to it at trial), it is the exact opposite.” 

Also during the appeal Ms Justice Kennedy said it was difficult to advance an appeal on the grounds that evidence of the garda interview with the accused should not have been put before the jury given that the defence had no difficulty with it being admitted during the trial.

This judge also expressed concerns about the appeal on the grounds that the trial judge’s charge to the jury addressing them on the evidence and aspect of law was inadequate. Ms Justice Kennedy said this ground of appeal was so broad and unspecific that it made it extremely difficult for the appeal court to deal with it at all.

Karen Harrington, who is aged around 40, was jailed for life for murdering two-year-old Santina Cawley at an apartment on Boreenmanna Road, Cork City, on July 5, 2019. The victim was the child of Ms Harrington’s then partner.

Imposing the mandatory life sentence, Judge Michael MacGrath said: 

“The murder of Santina Cawley, a defenceless two-year-old child, is truly shocking. It goes against nature for parents to bury a child but to lose a child in these circumstances is beyond description.” 

The torment is worsened by the knowledge of the terror that Santina was subjected to and the “brutal nature of her death”, the judge added.