A MOTHER whose parents are alleged to have sexually assaulted and caused the death of her “profoundly disabled” daughter has described how her nappy was “saturated with blood” after she was collected from their house.
Giving evidence at the Belfast Crown Court trial of her 88-year-old father David Johnston and mother Sarah (86), Cheryl McKeown said when she dropped her 14-year-old daughter Rebecca at the house, she was “fine, settled and in good form” as she went on a family fishing trip.
But three hours later, at around 8pm on March 19, 2001, Mrs McKeown told prosecuting QC Toby Hedworth that when she opened Rebecca’s nappy, there was “just a mass amount of blood and appeared to be covered from the waistband the whole way down”.
“It was saturated in blood and there was a large what I would describe as clot of blood,” Mrs McKeown told the jury adding that before she did anything else, she ran to the phone and called for the doctor.
Her parents Mr and Mrs Johnston deny one count of child cruelty on March 19 and a charge of Rebecca’s manslaughter five days later on March 24, 2001.
Rebecca’s death was investigated at the time and the grandparents were interviewed but never charged until the case was reopened in 2008.
The jury have already heard that Rebecca, who had a number of life-limiting conditions including spastic cerebral palsy, scoliosis of the spine, was registered blind, suffered severe epilepsy of up to 30 seizures a day and microcephlia, which meant her brain would not develop, was confined to a wheelchair, could neither walk, talk nor eat for herself and required 24-hour care.
The teenager, who had the body mass of a six-year-old child, died after contracting pneumonia which, according to the prosecution, came as a direct result of an alleged sexual assault she suffered at the hands of one or other grandparent.
The jury have also heard that Rebecca’s blood was found on her grandfather’s trousers and had soaked through to his boxer shorts as he sat with her at the couple’s former home at King’s Drive in Newtownabbey.
Yesterday Mrs McKeown told the jury her husband Stephen, who had collected Rebecca from her parents’ nearby house told her he thought that Rebecca had “taken her first period”.
Having put a fresh clean nappy on her daughter, Mrs McKeown said there was a “trickle of blood constantly flowing” from her.
Dr Donnelly from the out-of-hours service arrived within 45 minutes and she examined Rebecca, removing two further blood clots.
The doctor left but provided contact details and around 20 minutes later, Mrs McKeown said she called Dr Donnelly after Rebecca deterioriated to such an extent that her breathing shortened and her lips and fingernails were turning blue so she called for an ambulance.
At the hospital “we were told by Dr Reid that he did not think Rebecca was going to survive” and in the early hours of that morning, Mrs McKeown said two other doctors came and spoke to her and Stephen, telling them that Rebecca had been “traumatised”.
“He said ‘we know she has been traumatised’. I said ‘what do you mean’ and that’s when he said ‘your daughter has been sexually assaulted’,” she told the jury.
Despite doctors’ initial concerns, Rebecca rallied and her parents left the hospital around 5am and Mrs McKeown told the court that when she told them their granddaughter had been sexually assaulted, “there was no reaction, no shock or just facial expression”.
Mrs McKeown has finished her evidence-in-chief and will be cross-examined by defence lawyers today.
The trial continues.