“I didn’t know what to do when I saw the baby, like, stop moving so I just sat there and cried.”
A teenager who killed her newborn baby and dumped her body will not serve jail time.
The teenager, who says it wasn’t until she felt the baby’s head crowning that she even realised she was even pregnant, has appeared in the Victorian Supreme Court. She says when she gave birth in the early hours of the morning in a bedroom in her father’s home in February last year she panicked.
The 18-year old was terrified, unsure of what to do – and so in a state of fear and panic she put her hand over the newborn baby’s mouth.
She told police that she placed her hand over her daughter’s mouth so she wouldn’t “wake up family members” from the infant’s crying.
She claims that when she did so – she didn’t cover the baby’s nose, but when she noticed her newborn wasn’t breathing, she cut the umbilical cord which was wrapped around the baby’s leg and after realising she was dead she put her in a garbage bag.
“I didn’t know what to do when I saw the baby, like, stop moving so I just sat there and cried,” the woman told police according to the summary.
Crown prosecutor Andrew Grant told the Victorian Supreme Court yesterday that the young woman had earlier in evening played a game of basketball with her sister, totally unaware she was about to go into labour.
AAP reports that the woman, now aged 19, then put her daughter in the bag in the early hours of the morning and two days later left her under a tree in a nearby street.
The baby, who was born alive wasn’t found for several days, when she was discovered in the garbage bag in March 2014 it made headlines around the country.
A police spokeswoman said at the time they were searching for the baby’s mother.
“Inquiries are continuing into how long the deceased child may have been there and the circumstances under which it was placed there” police said.
Eight days later after the teenager confessed to her sister that she had given birth the 18-year old turned herself in to police.
She was charged with infanticide and pleaded guilty.
While the post mortem examination could not determine the cause of the baby’s death, the Crown prosecutor said it was undeniable that the newborn died as a result of a “number of acts and omissions on the part of the mother”.
But in court yesterday at a pre-sentence hearing Victorian Supreme Court Justice John Rush said he was not considering a term of imprisonment for the woman.
Defence barrister Helen Spowart said that the young woman experienced “immense shame, remorse and regret.”
“That self punishment is greater and more long lasting than any punishment that this court could impose,” Ms Spowart said.
Psychiatrist Adam Deacon said that the teenager experienced acute stress and” feelings of dissociation” when she realised she was in labour.
In evidence tendered to the court both a psychiatrist and a neonatologist said the woman experienced “pervasive denial of her pregnancy” leading up to the infant’s murder.
AAP reports that infanticide -the crime of a mother killing her baby while the balance of her mind is disturbed as a result of childbirth -carries a maximum penalty of five years.
Her case continues.
Top Comments
I feel for the girl
I found out at 27 weeks
Unexpected pregnancy so late is terrifying
at birth even worse
Jail wont help her at all
A couple of days ago you posted an article about how domestic violence killer of Kirralee Paepaerei should be on trail of 2 murders as she was pregnant at the time. Now I'm not defending that monster in any way, he needs to be buried under the prison. But to claim that one person is guilty of taking the life of an unborn child, yet another who killer her very much alive baby is suffering enough I think is a funny stance to take. In my opinion, she took a life, the life of a baby and she should be punished.
It's circumstantial, is it not? We need to judge a person's heart and intent as well as their actions. For me, these are two very different circumstances.