Jail for breast feeding mother

A woman, who stole groceries worth €100 from a supermarket in Carrickmacross, was given prison sentences amounting to eight months when the matter came before Monaghan District Court. This was despite her solicitor’s appeal to the judge not to impose a custodial sentence as she was breastfeeding a seven-week-old baby.

Christina Ward (36) with an address at Blessington Street, Dublin 1, and also at Dunaree Laragh, Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, admitted the theft at Eurospar, Cloughvalley Upper, Carrickmacross, on July 14 last.

Ward, who had 117 previous convictions, was separately before the court for failing to appear at a District Court hearing in the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin on February 2, 2025. Evidence was given by Garda Daire Duggan in relation to his arrest of the defendant on foot of a bench warrant that had issued from the Dublin court.

Solicitor Roisin Courtney said her client had €100 to offer in compensation to the Carrickmacross shop.

It was confirmed by Sergeant Lisa McEntee that none of the items taken from the Eurospar store were recovered. She noted that many of Ward’s previous convictions were for thefts. She had received suspended sentences and prison sentences, the most recent being a three-month sentence in March 2024 for theft offences.

The defendant had also taken 41 bench warrants for failing to appear in court.

Solicitor Roisin Courtney said her client was a mother of six who tended to “fall in and out of bad company”. She had a serious heroin problem and was currently receiving treatment for that addiction.

But she was also breast feeding a seven-week-old baby, while living at home again with her parents, and in that regard Ms Courtney implored the court not to impose a custodial sentence.

But Judge Raymond Finnegan said he could not avoid a prison sentence when dealing with a defendant “with a record like that”. He understood her situation, but the Dóchas Centre had facilities to deal with it. The judge also remarked that suspended sentences hadn’t worked. He noted how she would have been looking after the baby on July 14 but that hadn’t prevented her going to the shop and robbing €100 of goods.

Ms Courtney said her client didn’t even remember the incident, but the judge said he was imposing a five-month sentence for the Eurospar thefts, with a consecutive three months for the failure to appear in Dublin last February.