Mother charged with murder in Charleville tragedy

Diane Ward was charged with the murder of her eight year old son Anthony Ward at a special sitting of Limerick District Court yesterday. 

The presiding judge recommended that Ms Ward undergo psychiatric treatment while in custody.

She is remanded in custody until Tuesday when she will appear before Newcastlewest District Court and will be unable to attend Anthony's burial today at the Church of the Holy Cross in Charleville as applications for bail in murder cases can only be made to the High Court. 

Anthony, who was due to return to school that day, was found dead at his home in Harrison Place in Charleville on Monday morning at 9.30am.

Diane Ward was arrested on Tuesday when she was discharged from Cork University Hospital (CUH) after being treated for distress.

She was detained at Mallow Garda Station under Section Four of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 for 24. Her detention was extended by a further 12 hours before lunchtime on Wednesday and she appeared at the District Court in Limerick, at 6.30pm.

The Ward family is expected to make a statement after the funeral today. The family asked for donations to be made to Cork Mental Health or Charleville Tae Kwon Do Club in lieu of flowers.

HSE involvement

The Health Service Executive is to conduct a review of its involvement with the family but would not comment further while the Garda investigation continued.

“The HSE South has been notified of the tragic death of a child in Charleville, Co Cork,” said the statement. 

“This matter is currently under investigation by the Gardaí. HSE South, Console and other agencies will provide appropriate support, assistance and counselling to those affected by the incident. As with all serious incidents such as this, the HSE has committed to a comprehensive review of the involvement of HSE services with the family.”

Assistant State pathologist Dr Margot Bolster conducted the postmortem at CUH and it is belived Anthony died from asphyxia. However toxicology results will not be known for a number of weeks.

Anthony’s funeral and burial takes place at Holy Cross Cemetary today at 2.30pm.