Fifteen year old girl who killed her newborn baby

I worked in a maternity hospital as a social worker and dealt with several similar scenarios during my time there.

One 15 year old gave birth on her own in her bedroom, having been sent home from school with "tummy ache." The baby died by suffocation - I will not give details as it might outing even though this happened a long time ago. The CPS took the view that this was neither manslaughter nor infanticide as the coroner's verdict was: "Death by lack of attention at birth", even though there were actions that caused the death. I felt that, although the letter of the law might have been followed only loosely, the spirit was right, as this girl needed help and support for the future, which I hope we were able to give her.

I do not think the girl currently in custody nor society will be best served by this harsh sentence. I am sure we all feel for the baby and for her, but have to ask what purpose is served by this sentence. Given that she was a resident of Herefordshire, whose children's services have been in special measures for years and who are about to be descended on by officials from another authority to try and lick them into shape, she is in one way being punished for their shortcomings (and their underfunding). It does sound as though she was a vulnerable child and she is likely not to have been picked up and helped as she should have been.

In prison she will mix with drug addicts, be offered drugs, and likely get into debt for them - this is how British prisons operate (don't ask me how I know - trust me on this one - I do know). Rehabilitation and support is a joke in prison and she has just been condemned to a downhill slide. Any hope of her being able to lead a decent life has now gone.

Should she be punished for being a vulnerable and scared child? Is she a danger to the public and needs locking up?

Yes, both prosecution and defence will obtain reports from experts.

Wyllow3

More than one psychiatrist?

There would also be a detailed psychology assessment, and if others were involved reports from them too. it wouldn’t be just one consultant’s report. It’s a rare occurrence, and treated very seriously when a child is killed, whatever the circumstances.

More than one psychiatrist?

agree with GSM.
it's the baby i feel sorry for.

Germanshepherdsmum

People seem not to understand the difference between murder and manslaughter, nor to understand that we don’t have access to all the evidence which was before the judge and the jury.

Casdon, I read one psychiatrist reported she was not of unbalanced mind. GSM is right to remind us the judge and jury hears evidence from this young woman, as well as medical experts

Well, I've not just read about it on here.
I was going to start a thread previously but it was too distressing.

I'm out.

Beetlejuice

Well, I think that ramming cotton wool so far down the baby's throat that it was only discovered during his autopsy, and allegedly putting her foot on his tiny head and pressing it down, resulting in a fractured skull and with similar injuries to a head on car crash, does show some planning. During police interviews she actually mentioned how much she disliked the sound of a baby's cries. She wanted that child dead and to be thrown out with the rubbish.

Perhaps people might dwell on what happened to this poor child rather than rushing to make excuses for his ‘mother’.

Indeed Casdon. But people who have only read a newspaper report seemingly know better.

People seem not to understand the difference between murder and manslaughter, nor to understand that we don’t have access to all the evidence which was before the judge and the jury.

I don’t want to be a party pooper, but she will have received a psychiatric assessment, and the outcome will have been part of the evidence. I don’t know anything about this case, but I’d bet a pound to a penny that if she was assessed as of unbalanced mind there would not have been a murder verdict.

It's something no rational person would do, she was not in her right mind and I think she needs to be in a psychiatric unit for a specified time.
PTSD? Panic? And hormones all over the place?

Well, I think that ramming cotton wool so far down the baby's throat that it was only discovered during his autopsy, and allegedly putting her foot on his tiny head and pressing it down, resulting in a fractured skull and with similar injuries to a head on car crash, does show some planning. During police interviews she actually mentioned how much she disliked the sound of a baby's cries. She wanted that child dead and to be thrown out with the rubbish.

Perhaps it’s not that she’s had too long a sentence but the other reported cases way too short

Ilovecheese

A man strangles his wife because he is fed up of lockdown after a few days - sentenced to five years.
A man strangles his girlfriend during so called "rough sex" - sentenced to four years.
Something seriously scewed in our justice system.

This 👍

This is a desperately sad case. The jury heard evidence, including from experts and reached the conclusion this was murder. There isn’t much information available but the details of the way this helpless baby died are horrific. I wonder what is in the psychiatric reports.
12 years does seem a long sentence. I take the points made by other posters about much more lenient sentences given to adult men who murder their partners.

I do feel that the young girl needs mental health help It’s not easy to kill even a helpless baby and not normal behaviour It would have been easier to abandon the little chap somewhere
I think a 15 year old doesn’t have the same forethought and insight of an adult but I do think it was murder, she didn’t want the baby, but its complex because she had nine months to have an abortion I wonder why she went full term went through giving birth (which I found very scary at 21) and then kill the poor little thing You ve got to be mentally very unstable to actually kill any living thing, even an animal

Esmay

This girl needs a lot of help not a lengthy prison sentence .

I hope that she gets psychiatric help , an education and a reduced sentence .

It was a while ago, I think she's 19 now but was just 15 at the time.

She needs psychiatric help, a lengthy prison sentence helps no-one.

This case was on the local news and I fund it very distressing.

Poor baby, poor girl.
She didn't have a happy home life, was just looking for some love and I don't believe she realised the consequences and was shocked to find herself pregnant and then told no-one.

She was a frightened 15 year old and, hearing about the awful family circumstances, how do they know she would have received family support?

She should be sent to a closed psychiatric institution and reviewed regularly, as regards progress towards rehabilitation, had treatment, etc. Problems in the family clearly alluded to. Dad about to die. Lots more to this story I feel. Need to know what huge said about minimum but most of all, where she will be sent.

quote from the O/P, "The judge said she knew she was in labour, so must have planned to kill the baby therefore the killing was pre-meditated.".

This is the judge leading the jury. We don't know it was premeditated. How on earth did things get to where they were?

The jury on this case were able to consider a verdict of infanticide but, after hearing all the evidence, they took just 8 and a half hours to decide it was murder. She received a fair trial.

That isn’t a similar case Farmor.

Statement from the Crown Prosecution Service

This is a tragic and complex case. Stanley Mayo’s short life was filled with pain and suffering when he should have been nurtured and loved. The prosecution built a case based on medical evidence which proved that Paris Mayo’s actions were deliberate, she chose to hide her pregnancy, give birth alone and kill her baby, then hide his body despite accepting that she had a family who would have supported her. Although Paris Mayo has been sentenced today, nothing can bring back poor Stanley who tragically lost his life before it even got a chance to begin.”

What she did is very distressing BlueBelle, and it explains why she was convicted of murder. As regards the length of time she must serve before release, we haven’t seen the judgement (well I haven’t anyway). That will explain a great deal.

Similar case but very different sentence:
www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mother-jailed-for-three-months-over-manslaughter-of-baby-left-in-bin-1330126.html