This article is from page 12 of the 2007-04-24 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
AN 11-YEAR boy failed in his des- perate efforts to revive his four-year- old brother after finding him hang- ing by his hood from a toilet window at their primary school in east Clare last year.
At an inquest in Ennis last Tuesday into the death of junior infant, Karl Fox, a jury was told that his then 11- year-old brother, Gavin, climbed on top of a friend’s bicycle and lifted Karl from the window and on to the ground on March 14, 2006 at Feakle National School.
According to evidence from Garda Vivian Cahalane, “Gavin tried to wake up Karl, but failed to do so.”
Garda Cahalane said Gavin re- membered that “Karl was cold at that stage’. The inquest was told that Gavin put Karl over his shoulder and went onto the public road outside the school to get help.
Local | woman,
Mary Rose
Loughnane was bringing her daugh- ter from dance class and saw Gavin in a very distressed state and he called out “Help Miss’.
Ms Loughnane said that she no- ticed that Karl’s lips were blue and that he was unconscious. She drove the two home and on arriving at the Fox home, the boys’ mother, Linda came out “to take Karl from Gavin’s shoulder and tried to wake him by shaking him. She then became dis- tressed as he wasn’t responding.”
In her deposition, Linda said, “Karl was limp in my arms and I noticed that his lips were blue.”
She then ran to a neighbour’s house with Karl in her arms.
At the house, a student nurse at- tempted to revive Karl before an ambulance arrived to take the boy to Ennis General Hospital. How- ever, Karl was pronounced dead at 6.20pm.
The inquest was told that Gavin was at hurling training after school between 3pm and 4pm and had seen Karl playing around the field at 3.30pm.
Gavin returned home after train-
ing but Karl was not there and their mother Linda asked Gavin to return to find Karl “because I remember looking at my watch and thinking it was too late for Karl to be out”.
Feakle National School teacher, Marie Clune took hurling training on the day and in her statement said she remembered seeing Karl at around 4.05pm walking by himself in the school yard. She was asked to lock up the school as principal, Ted Har- rington had to go to the local bank.
She called out a couple of times to make sure that there was no one left in the school building before she locked up.
She said, “I didn’t get any response so I proceeded to close the door and lock it. When I drove away from the school, I was happy that there was nobody left on the school grounds.”
Garda John Cunningham – said when later examining the scene with Mr Harrington, “we visited the boys’ toilet and the window Karl had got
caught on was in the middle above the sinks”.
Garda Cunningham said that they also found a yellow infant’s chair and a brown chair also 1n the toilet under a window that was barred.
Assistant State Pathologist, Dr Michael Curtis said he found three very faint discontinuous bruises on Karl’s neck that were consistent with the application of a broad ligature, such as clothing. He concluded that the cause of death was accidental hanging.
County Coroner, Isobel O’Dea said Karl’s death was very tragic and very sad for his parents, his siblings, his school and the wider Feakle commu- nity. She said ‘accidental hanging’ was the appropriate verdict and after deliberating for a short time, the jury returned that verdict.