Fifteen year old girl who killed her newborn baby

It’s impossible not to feel a level of sympathy for this young woman. It’s no secret I believe in the uk we send too many people to prison and that our once functional probation service alongside constructive alternatives to prison have been devastated by austerity. Our government’s ideology is to build more prisons rather than develop good alternatives to GMP.

I’ve sprint enough time in the criminal courts to accept this verdict and I accept the sentence is the one the judge gave after considering guidance

As so many others have said, we don’t have the benefit of hearing and studying the verdict. Do ‘some posters’ really believe they know more than the jurors and judge? Yes it seems they do.

I don't believe I know more than anyone. I do believe that the criminal justice system often gets things wrong and that the most common victims of those wrongs are women . I hope there will be an appeal.
I looked up other murders committed by 15 year olds as a comparison, some of them are much more horrific. Most of the perpetrators were given the same sentence as this girl and some even less. Many of them are not named because of their age. Surely the law should at least recognise the difference between stabbing or attacking a stranger and killing a baby just after giving birth.

As so many others have said, we don’t have the benefit of hearing and studying the verdict. Do ‘some posters’ really believe they know more than the jurors and judge? Yes it seems they do.

I don't but it is obvious that one, possibly two of the jurors who heard all the evidence did not agree with the others for whatever reasons.

Callistemon21

^As so many others have said, we don’t have the benefit of hearing and studying the verdict. Do ‘some posters’ really believe they know more than the jurors and judge? Yes it seems they do.^

I don't but it is obvious that one, possibly two of the jurors who heard all the evidence did not agree with the others for whatever reasons.

It must have been gruelling to be on this jury. Their deliberations are confidential. It’s not surprising that the verdict wasn’t unanimous.
I share Gloryanny’s view that our criminal justice system needs overhaul. I agree, women get a much tougher deal than men in the criminal justice system

tbh I am heartened by those who show sympathy and a willingness to try to understand why such a terrible thing could happen. I think it demonstrates the general "goodness" in people. I am still perplexed by PM's failure to try to conceal her baby's body. If the murder had been premeditated, surely she'd have tried to hide the body. I'm still struggling with the idea that a 14 year old girl can hide her pregnancy so successfully. Was this girl so completely invisible to people that no-one noticed, if so what does it say about her upbringing and the people around her? Such a dreadfully sad case. I hope they find a reason to appeal so she gets a second chance.

foxie48

tbh I am heartened by those who show sympathy and a willingness to try to understand why such a terrible thing could happen. I think it demonstrates the general "goodness" in people. I am still perplexed by PM's failure to try to conceal her baby's body. If the murder had been premeditated, surely she'd have tried to hide the body. I'm still struggling with the idea that a 14 year old girl can hide her pregnancy so successfully. Was this girl so completely invisible to people that no-one noticed, if so what does it say about her upbringing and the people around her? Such a dreadfully sad case. I hope they find a reason to appeal so she gets a second chance.

I was wondering about her mother foxie48 if you knew your 14 year old daughter had some sort of friendship with a boy of a certain nationality, and she asked you what a mixed race baby would look like, wouldn't every one of your instincts be alerted, and wouldn't you have been watching her like a hawk?

Working in a maternity hospital we saw many girls who concealed their pregnancies successfully - a few had no idea how they might have known they were pregnant, including an 11 year old.

Others were terrified of their parents' reactions, particularly within certain cultural groups where a pre-marital pregnancy brought shame on the family. We had cause to hide some girls in fear of their lives.

The desire to hide a pregnancy stems from deep-rooted fears The child in this case will undoubtedly have had good reason to hide her pregnancy.

I do not question that the letter of the law was followed, and all proper procedure. I just question the value to this now young adult of placing her in a criminal melting pot for such a long time for a crime she committed when a child. It would be good to think that there might be some alternative that would help her to overcome her obvious problems and guide her into living a decent life.

I do not question that the letter of the law was followed, and all proper procedure. I just question the value to this now young adult of placing her in a criminal melting pot for such a long time for a crime she committed when a child. It would be good to think that there might be some alternative that would help her to overcome her obvious problems and guide her into living a decent life.

I agree with this 100%.

It’s a shocking case all round, but the twelve years minimum prison sentence is disturbing too.
The purpose of a prison sentence according to the government is:

~First, protection of the public – prison protects the public from the most dangerous and violent individuals.~

~Second, punishment – prison deprives offenders of their liberty and certain freedoms enjoyed by the rest of society and acts as a deterrent. It is not the only sanction available, but it is an important one.~

~And third, rehabilitation – prison provides offenders with the opportunity to reflect on, and take responsibility for, their crimes and prepare them for a law-abiding life when they are released.~

This is a quote from David Gauke Minister for Justice 2018. But it has been an agreed philosophy for many years.

But I fail to see how the punishment serves these purposes in this case.

1. The girl is not a danger to society
2. It is unlikely to act as a deterrent to others as the circumstances, luckily, are very unusual
3. Rehabilitation in our overcrowded prisons is poor and could be better achieved outside the prison system, in the community.

Yes the judge was following sentencing guidelines, although he decided to increase the sentence from nine years to twelve. But surely there were extenuating circumstances in this case. The length of prison sentence seems excessive and counterproductive.

Mitigating as well as aggravating factors were taken into account in determining the sentence. The judge explains this fully.

Of course they were GSM. Judges don't just think of a number do they.

Not at all. They have to show they have followed sentencing guidelines and made proper provision for aggravating and mitigating circumstances. In his sentencing this judge showed this very clearly. In a case of murder there is no alternative to a custodial sentence; a convicted person will only be sent to a secure psychiatric hospital to serve their sentence if there is expert evidence of severe mental illness - this was not the case here.

I read that the sentence is 14 years but she may be released after 12 years .

4:05pm
Pre-meditated killing
Calling Paris Mayo a 'pathetic 15-year-old girl, the judge says there was some degree of pre-meditated killing.

Her sentence is therefore increased to 14 years

Hereford Times

If you read the judge’s sentencing remarks you will see his starting point was 9 years. The aggravating factors increased the sentence to 14 years. He then took mitigating factors into account to bring it down to 12.

I have no doubt the judge followed the correct guidelines. That is their job.

But it is legitimate to ask what the purpose of this sentence is.

I have a young adopted relative who has been in prison for several years for a serious drug-induced crime. Whilst there she has been the victim of intimidation and demanding money with menaces (the prison suggest her parents pay these to stop her getting further beaten up - unbelievable), has become further addicted (the drugs are freely available in every prison she has been in), has been out on licence and received no support so finished up back in prison ...... nothing that has been on offer has in any way provided rehabilitation or a way of her escaping from this miserable life. Add in that she is know to be on the autistic spectrum and has brain damage from drug trauma in utero but received no treatment as a child (and believe me we tried very hard to get this!) The best we can offer her as a society is to be locked up with thugs and drug pushers. That'll do it then .........

PM will be in this environment for a number of years and will come out addicted and traumatised. Whose interests does that serve?

So do you suggest we don’t imprison people convicted of murder (which is mandatory) or ‘serious drug-related crime’?

I have no doubt the judge followed the correct guidelines. That is their job

The forensic psychiatrists disagreed in their expert opinions.
The judge gave the jury the option of murder or infanticide
The jury were not unanimous in their decision.

Now the former Chief Inspector of Probation and ex-Youth Justice Board chairman, professor Rod Morgan, has questioned the lengthy prison sentence, as reported in The Forest Review this week.

He has written a letter to The Guardian about this troubling case.

I sincerely hope that she doesn't go to Eastwood Park prison which would be the nearest to her home. It has an appalling reputation and clearly does little to help rehabilitate the women held there. Just a snippet from the inspection report (see below), taken from the BBC. Yet another example of how are public services are letting down vulnerable people in our society.
"The levels of distress we observed were appalling. No prisoner should be held in such terrible conditions."

Mr Taylor said he was "deeply concerned" about the welfare of the "dedicated and courageous" staff on unit 4, saying they "were not adequately trained or qualified" to look after the women in their care.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-64498520

Our public services not are!

Germanshepherdsmum

So do you suggest we don’t imprison people convicted of murder (which is mandatory) or ‘serious drug-related crime’?

No - I am suggesting that:
- we need to ask what a prison sentence is for.
- we need prisons that are fit for purpose.
- we need services in the community that help people not to get to the situation where they offend.
- we need to sort the physically and mentally damaged from the criminal. Prisons are full of illiterate and mentally ill people.
- we need to get drugs out of prison.
- we need to restart the services for families with problems.
- we need to have preventative services in place.

Above all else we need to know what the purpose of this young woman's sentence is. She committed the offence as a child, but it took years to get to court. Would she have got 12 years if she had still been a child when it came to court?

Yes she would because she had to be sentenced on the basis of the age she was when she murdered her baby. She was not sentenced as a 19 year old.

So should your relative not have been imprisoned but left in the community to commit another serious crime?

And how do you propose to stop drugs getting into prisons? We could ban visitors and outdoor spaces and board up the windows to stop them coming in by drone I suppose. Any other ideas?

Sentenced to 14 years as an adult aged 56 for raping a baby (more than once) and being in possession of indecent images of children.

www.wiltshire999s.co.uk/prison-swindon-man-filmed-assaulting-baby

She was sentenced to 12 years not 14. If you understand what sentencing guidelines and adjustments for aggravating and mitigating factors mean you will understand that you can’t compare sentences given for different offences, and especially not on the basis of newspaper reports.

The judge applied the sentencing guidelines set by the government. It doesn’t mean that the sentencing guidelines are universally accepted. Neither are they set in stone.

Judges have the discretion to depart from sentencing guidelines if they think it would be in the interest of justice to do so, given all the circumstances of a particular case.” from the Sentencing Council.

Former probation watchdog Professor Morgan has slammed her jailing in a letter to The Guardian as mentioned previously by a poster.

He wrote: “The jailing of Paris Mayo should bring us up short.

“What on earth are we doing when current penal policy suggests that this is an appropriate sentence for a child offender who killed her newborn child but who, in the judge’s words, was “vulnerable” and “ill-supported at home”?

“What purpose does such a lengthy minimum sentence serve?”

And how do you propose to stop drugs getting into prisons? We could ban visitors and outdoor spaces and board up the windows to stop them coming in by drone I suppose. Any other ideas?

Well, we could sack the prison officers that are taking backhanders to turn a blind eye for a start.