Please allow me to tell you a true story or should that be a true account of a similar case that I dealt with.
I was called ( as the Senior Investigative Police Detective Officer) to a home where it was reported that a newborn baby had been placed outside in a refuse bin, in the cold winter
frost .
On first impression, it’s horrific circumstances and you would rightly question who would do such an evil thing to a precious newborn???
However, sometimes before we jump to conclusions, we need to ascertain the full circumstances of this event.
To try and be as brief as possible without giving too much unnecessary detail, I will tell you the full circumstances.
The mother, was a mid 20’s lady, very intelligent and academically successful, having attended and received stellar grades at a Very aristocratic, accomplished and sought after, Old English University, generally frequented by the ‘cream of society’ ( not my words ).
However, a tragic car crash left her with a brain injury and she subsequently had a frontal lobe lobotomy. This created both long and short term memory loss and this independent lady had to move back home to be looked after by her mother.
She led a relatively normal life but obviously had restrictions and notes were placed around the house to remind her of what to do when for example, the door bell rings etc
She met a man from her university days and a relationship ensued. She became pregnant and arrangements were commenced for ‘Dad’ to move to the other end of the country to be with her, once he had found a job and place to live.
Her mother was unhappy about the whole situation and told her that once the baby arrived, she was to find somewhere else to live, even if her BF/ child’s Dad has not yet relocated. Mother then ( partly in frustration and anger) left for a three month trip to Australia, leaving her daughter home alone.
About 8 months into her pregnancy, she awoke with stomach ache and took some paracetamol. The pain continued so she tried to phone her BF but couldn’t reach him and it was questionable as to wether she had called the correct number.
She went to the toilet and she said that she felt something ‘fall’ from her and plop into the water.
She stood up and face down in the water was the baby. She fished the baby out but it made no sound so she believed that it was dead. So she went downstairs and put the baby in the trash bin.
She then went to bed feeling sick. She was awoken by searing pain and returned to the bathroom where she delivered the placenta, and put this into the trash bin too. Later that day, her BF called her and she told him what had happened and he rang the Police.
On the face of it, you could say why why why ?
The reality for her was she was doing what her notes pinned around the house told her to do - put any trash into the bin outside.
She didn’t have the capacity to remember to call the ambulance etc
She had missed some antenatal appointments and in fact should have attended one the day before this happened but forgot about it and a letter arrived through the post, the day of the birth asking her to contact the midwife.
Incidentally, there had been meetings with the medical services and social services about putting her into a mother and baby unit once baby was born to help her to learn to look after her baby. But that help was too late.
I won’t go into further detail about why she did or didn’t do things , suffice to say there was a full investigation and she was not prosecuted.
The message in my story here is sometimes we are not privvy to all of the circumstances before we rush to judge and vilify when told of something like this.
I know the baby took a breath and subsequently died a cold lonely death as a result but it wasn’t because of malicious intent.
It’s just a sad situation all around and not one that the people involved in will ever forget.
