Man jailed for abandoning two-year-old daughter on roadside

A father has been sent to prison for abandoning his young daughter at the side of a busy road.

The young man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the two-year-old girl, will be serving three years in jail. He was given his sentence after appearing at Letterkenny District Court in Co. Donegal, where he pleaded guilty to child cruelty.

The man, who is in his 20s, chose to commit the offence in August 2020 as an act of revenge against the child’s mother.

The man had become jealous that his ex-girlfriend had gone on a night out that evening. At 4:30am, he sent a threatening message to the toddler’s mother, warning her that he would abandon their daughter if she did not tell him her location.

After receiving no response, the man decided to take pictures of his daughter on a roadside in Letterkenny and sent them to her mother, before driving off and abandoning the child. 

The little girl was shortly found crying and freezing around 5am. During the case’s hearing, Garda Sergeant Frank McDaid recalled how the girl was discovered by two men leaving a party. The child was found holding a baby’s bottle at the entrance to a local construction site. 

After knocking on nearby houses in an attempt to locate the girl’s parents, the two passers-by subsequently called Gardaí.

The child’s mother phoned Gardaí and explained that the girl was her daughter, and had been left alone by her father. He was subsequently arrested and pleaded guilty.

The man has not seen his young daughter since abandoning her, and in her victim impact statement, the child’s mother noted that the little girl now struggles to be around others.

At the end of the case, Judge John Alymer handed down a sentence of four years, with the final 12 months suspended.