"Secret" baby remains taken to Bourne Civic Amenity dump
A DESPERATE young woman confessed to police that she gave birth to a "secret" baby in the bath at her Bourne home and then went into panic when she realised the infant was dead.
Ruth Hawley (25), now of Hampton Vale, Peterborough, wrapped the remains in a towel, covered that with clingfilm and placed the tiny bundle inside a vanity bag.
She kept the body in a bedroom at the house for two days, later transferring it to a garden shed. When she moved two months later, she took the remains to the Bourne civic amenity dump along with other household items and threw them into a skip.
Spalding magistrates heard that the gruesome fate of the baby boy might never have been known, had the body of another newborn baby - this time a girl - not been discovered at the Peterborough tip in August last year.
Prosecutor Marie Stace told the court: "Her stepfather saw a story about the Peterborough discovery on Sky News and told the defendent out of interest. She immediately believed it could be her baby and went into a panic, taking an overdose or paracetamol.
"It was while she was in hospital recovering that she told staff there and as soon as she was discharged, she went to the police in Peterborough and confessed to what had happened."
The court heard that for eight months, Hawley had been the subject of an intensive murder investigation, but this had now been dropped. In court at Spalding last week, she faced a single, reduced charge of "endeavouring to conceal the birth of a child by the secret disposition of the dead body".
Hawley told police in a statement that she had just started a new relationship and was embarrassed and scared by her pregnancy. She was also suffering post-natal depression from the birth of her daughter from an earlier relationship.
She told police she hid her pregancy by wearing figure-concealing clothes. When people, including her partner, began asking about her body shape around Christmas, 2007, she denied she was pregnant. She also avoided any physical contact.
Miss Stace said: "The next month she felt unwell and drove home to Bourne. She realised she was about to give birth and got into the water-filled bath."
She said Hawley told police: "When the baby came out its eyes were open. It did not move. I cut the cord with a knife and the baby immediately went blue."
Hawley, smartly-dressed in a grey skirt, striped shirt and dark top, listened in silence as the prosecution outlined the detailed forensic search carried out by the police at the property in Peregrine Place. Dogs specially trained to detect blood found traces in the shed, in the bedroom and a shower curtain.
She told police she moved the vanity bag containing the body to the shed because it "made her physically sick".
Angela Holland, mitigating, said there was no medical evidence to show whether the baby was born alive or dead. She told the court: "We cannot be sure whether this was a viable child or a miscarriage at some stage of the pregancy. No body was every found and this case is based only on what Miss Hawley herself has said.
"What happened was a very tragic set of circumstances."
She said her client had tried to block the memory but the discovery of the other baby's body in Peterborough, where she now lived, had brought it all back.
"She has had a very stressful time. It was only until a few months ago that the word 'murder' was hanging over her head."
She said social services had removed the defendant's young daughter into her mother's care but had now decided that Hawley was no risk to children. Miss Holland added: "The amount of time this has taken to come to court has been a life sentence in itself."
Miss Holland said Hawley's partner had stood by her and her other child had now been returned.
Mr Greg Cejer, chairman of the bench, said magistrates had decided to ask for detailed reports before sentencing at a later date. He told Hawley: "We accept that at the time you were under terrible emotional stress and it must have been a very difficult situation for a young mother."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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