LATEST: Woman pleads guilty to murdering her four-year-old stepson

A woman who left her four-year-old stepson with injuries that would typically be associated with car crashes or serious assaults has pleaded guilty to the child's murder on the fourth day of her trial.

The woman, aged in her 30s, had pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter and was being tried before a jury at the Central Criminal Court. 

The incident happened in the South West of the country and reporting restrictions are in place.

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After the evidence of a child witness was read into the record this afternoon, the accused woman's barrister Michael Lynn SC asked for time with his client.

When the jury returned at 3.03pm, the accused was arraigned on the charge that she murdered the four-year-old boy at her home in March 2021. She pleaded guilty to the single count.

Mr Justice Paul McDermott thanked the jury for their service and told them they are no longer required to give a verdict on the facts of the case. 

He adjourned the matter until December 1 when the defendant will face the mandatory sentence for murder of life imprisonment. 

The defendant can't be named to protect the identity of the child witness whose evidence was read into the record this afternoon immediately before the guilty plea was entered.

Various doctors gave evidence during the trial that when the boy was taken to hospital by ambulance on March 13, 2021, he had bruises "from head to toe", some of which were considered classic signs of physical abuse.

State Pathologist Dr Heidi Okkers told the trial that head injuries the child suffered were the result of shaking and being struck off a hard surface such as a floor or wall.

She also noted lacerations to the child's liver that she said were likely to have been caused by punching, kicking or striking the abdomen with a blunt object.