A mother who stabbed her newborn baby to death with scissors and placed her body in plastic bags before tossing it in a kitchen bin has been found dead in prison.
Rachel Tunstill, 32, killed her daughter Mia Kelly shortly after giving birth alone in the bathroom of her flat in Burnley, Lancashire. Her partner was playing Xbox in the next room during the January 2017 murder.
Tunstill received two life sentences for Mia’s murder – the second sentence was handed down in 2019.
She was originally found guilty of murder and sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison following a trial at Preston Crown Court in June 2017. But the conviction was overturned after an appeals court judge ruled that the jury in the case had reached a verdict of infanticide should get. to consider.
A Liverpool Crown Court jury found Tunstill guilty of murder after a retrial and was sentenced to life imprisonment and had to serve a minimum of 17 years before being eligible for release.
The Prison Service confirmed last night that Tunstill died yesterday at HMP Styal in Cheshire. The circumstances surrounding her death are currently unknown.
Rachel Tunstill, 32, murdered her daughter Mia Kelly in January 2017. She was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment and had to serve a minimum of 17 years before being eligible for release
The Prison Service confirmed last night that Tunstill died yesterday at HMP Styal in Cheshire. The circumstances surrounding her death are currently unknown
A spokesperson said: ‘HMP Styal prisoner Rachel Tunstill died in custody on August 1, 2023. As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.’
The court previously heard that Tunstill, a graduate of psychology and deputy manager at a care home for people with mental health problems, had high-functioning autistic spectrum disorder.
She had claimed she was unaware that her pregnancy was almost full term and thought she miscarried in the flat she shared with her partner, forklift driver Ryan Kelly, in Wellington Court, Burnley. She was 37 to 38 weeks pregnant at the time.
The jury was told that Tunstill had been charged with murder, but jurors could consider alternatives of manslaughter, manslaughter with reduced responsibility or infanticide.
According to the defense, Tunstill had been disturbed in his mood during the period after the birth on the evening of January 14, 2017, and she had “an acute stress reaction.”
In the weeks leading up to the delivery, Tunstill searched the Internet for terms such as ‘how to terminate a pregnancy’.
She also sought information on notorious killer Mick Philpott, who killed six of his own children in a house fire, and the court heard she had said she was interested in how someone described as a “psychopath” could have cried on television about the dead. before his guilt came to light.
The court was told that Tunstill had reported hearing voices since imprisonment and claimed they had told her she resembled Rose West, a serial killer who collaborated with her husband in the torture and murder of at least nine young women between 1973 and 1987.
Mia Kelly’s body was dumped in a bin at the couple’s home in Burnley (pictured)
At the time of sentencing, the judge, Mr Justice King, said: ‘This must have been a sustained and frenzied attack on a victim who was particularly vulnerable because of her age. Her duty to her newborn was to rock and comfort her – not to stab her to death.
“There was, in my judgment, concealment of the body here, albeit short-lived, and, in addition, there was no doubt the humiliation inflicted on the body by disposing of it in the manner she did.”
He said the circumstances of the January 14, 2017 murder were “particularly poignant,” adding, “What drove her to kill her baby in this way may never be known.” She gave birth alone in the bathroom of the Wellington Court flat, Burnley, which she shared with her partner of nine years, Mr Ryan, to a full-term baby weighing six to seven pounds.
“She called for a pair of scissors that Ryan brought her and then, unbeknownst to her partner, she used these scissors to stab her baby to death.”
She told him she had a miscarriage and asked him for a pair of scissors before stabbing Mia 14 times just after she was born, it was said.
MailOnline has approached the Ombudsman for Prisons and Probation for a response.