‘There’s a baby in the bag’: Mum screamed when she found her daughter’s newborn in bin after schoolgirl, 15, suffocated child after ‘unexpected’ birth at home, hears murder case
- Paris Mayo was 15 when she allegedly suffocated her baby with cotton wool
A mother screamed when she found her teenage daughter’s newborn baby in a garbage bag, a murder case heard.
Paris Mayo was just 15 when she allegedly killed her newborn son after giving birth “suddenly and unexpectedly” in her living room while her parents were upstairs.
Worcester Crown Court heard that the schoolgirl had killed the baby by attacking him and putting cotton wool in his airway. She put his body in a garbage bag and asked her older brother to throw it away the next day.
But her distraught mother yelled “there’s a baby in the bag” when she looked inside, then called emergency services.
Mayo, now 19 years old, denies the murder of baby Stanley Mayo, who was born full term or near term on the night of March 23, 2019.
Paris Mayo’s mother screamed when she found her daughter’s dead baby in a garbage bag, a murder case heard
Worcester Crown Court heard the then 15-year-old schoolgirl killed the baby by attacking him and stuffing cotton wool into his airway
Prosecutor Jonas Hankin KC said, “The birth took place in the living room of the family home where Miss Mayo lived with her parents and brother George.
“She was alone and delivered the baby unassisted while her ailing father was upstairs receiving dialysis under the supervision of her mother.
“After delivery, the defendant attacked the baby on the top left and right sides of its head, causing severe brain damage.
“About two hours later, when she realized the baby was still alive, she put pieces of cotton wool in his mouth and neck.
“She put the baby’s body in a garbage bag and put it on the curb before she went to bed.”
Mr Hankin said an autopsy found the baby suffocated after a piece of cotton wool blocked his esophagus.
Worcester Crown Court heard that Mayo thought she had menstrual cramps the night the baby was born and took a warm bath.
Her brother George left her glasses of warm milk and water in front of the bathroom door before going out.
Mayo was just 15 when she gave birth to little Stanley in Ross-on-Wye in March 2019
When he got home, Mayo asked him not to enter the living room because she had been bleeding profusely, the jury was told.
The next morning, the teen texted her brother asking him to get rid of the garbage bag and saying she was “sick” from the previous night.
But Mayo’s mother looked inside and yelled hysterically at George, “There’s a baby in the bag.”
Mr Hankin said: ‘The defendant’s mother called emergency services and said her daughter had given birth. She was heard to say, “You could have told me honey. Poor baby. Why didn’t you tell me?”
The jury was given a plan of the family home in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, and instructed to write ‘birth’ in the room where the baby was born. They will also play Mayo’s mother’s 999 call.
The court heard Mayo tell paramedics she was unaware she was pregnant and that the baby had “fallen out of her.”
Worcester Crown Court heard Mayo thought she had menstrual cramps the night the baby was born and had a warm bath
Mr. Hankin said, “She told a paramedic that the baby didn’t seem okay. She hoped her mother would think the baby was rubbish and throw it away.
“She said she knew the identity of the baby’s father, but she had nothing to do with him.”
The jury heard that Mayo later called the father Benjy Davies, but this turned out to be wrong.
Learned during the murder trial that Mayo had denied being pregnant when asked by her older sister two months earlier.
Her brother had no idea his sister was pregnant, but had noticed that she had grown wider and taller and started wearing baggy clothes, the jury heard.
Mayo, from Ruardean, Gloucestershire, claimed the baby wasn’t moving or breathing after she gave birth and she used cotton wool to clean up “stuff” that came out of his mouth.
The process is expected to take six weeks.